According to Zach Pandl, head of research at Grayscale, the quantum challenges of Bitcoin (BTC) are “more social than technical,” with reaching consensus in the community being a significant obstacle.

Pandl wrote in a recent blog post that the technical risk of Bitcoin is lower than that of other cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin uses a UTXO model, proof-of-work consensus, has no native smart contracts, and certain addresses are not vulnerable to quantum computers as long as they are not reused after a transaction.

Lost bitcoins could become the biggest quantum problem.

The main problem is with bitcoins whose private key has been lost or is no longer accessible. This concerns an estimated 1 million BTC from Satoshi Nakamoto, now worth about $68.9 billion.

Because no one has these keys, no one can move these coins to quantum-safe addresses. Pandl outlines three possible steps for the Bitcoin community.

But they can decide to destroy these vulnerable coins forever, do nothing, or delay their issuance by restricting the spending of these addresses.

“All options are theoretically possible, but it is difficult to reach a decision. The Bitcoin community has a history of fierce debates over protocol changes, such as last year's discussion about storing image data in blocks,” he writes.

Charlie Lee, founder of Litecoin, shared similar concerns and warned that Satoshi’s coins are the first target in a quantum attack. Changpeng Zhao, co-founder of Binance, also acknowledges the governance difficulties.

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Why centralized systems can adapt more easily.

Pandl compares these governance challenges to centralized organizations such as banks or tech companies. These organizations can implement updates from the top down.

In public blockchains, a distributed consensus is needed, which makes even simple adjustments politically challenging. Nevertheless, Pandl sees this challenge as an opportunity.

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“Blockchain communities need to work together on solutions and implement them in the code. And when that happens (and we believe it is a matter of time), it will become even harder to deny the adaptability of this decentralized financial technology,” the text states.

At this moment, Pandl sees no direct security risk from quantum computers. Nevertheless, the company advises investors to prepare now before the technology arrives.