$460 billion Bitcoin risk draws BlackRock, Coinbase and Strategy into $15M quantum defense mission
BlackRock, Coinbase, Strategy, and six other Bitcoin-linked firms formed the Bitcoin Security Consortium, backed by $15 million to fund research on Bitcoin’s long-term security, starting with quantum-resistant cryptography. Members include Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, Block, Blockstream, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Galaxy. The effort responds to growing concern that future quantum computers could break Bitcoin’s elliptic-curve signatures by deriving private keys from public keys. The risk is not immediate, but more than 7 million BTC already sit in outputs with exposed public keys, raising pressure to prepare early. The consortium says it will support developers and researchers without pooling funds, selecting grants, or taking a protocol position, to avoid steering Bitcoin’s governance. Mike Schmidt of Brink will coordinate the work. Separately, developers are քննարկing phased migration proposals such as BIP-361, but any network-wide cryptographic change would still require broad adoption across the Bitcoin ecosystem.
