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Last week, Google accelerated its timeline for the post-quantum reality to 2029.
Today, the tech giant's quantum and artificial intelligence team released a new research paper, warning that number of quantum computation units required to break elliptic curve cryptography schemes is 20 times less than previously thought.
What's the Scoop?
- Accelerated Timeline: On March 25, Google revised its timeline for the post-quantum reality, advising cryptographic systems to target full migration by 2029. Until now, the tech giant has been aligned with the NIST timeline, which specifies 2030 for deprecating quantum-unsafe algorithms and their full disallowance by 2035.
- Breaking Signature Schemes: Today, Google Quantum and AI released a new research report, which demonstrated that future quantum computers could potentially break elliptic curve cryptography schemes (which protects crypto wallets and other systems) with twenty times fewer qubits and gates than previously realized.
What's the Take:
Elliptic curve cryptography secures everything from 
Bitcoin and 
Ethereum wallets to digital signatures, meaning a successful quantum attack would undermine foundational blockchain security.
Now, its timeline to obsolescence is collapsing as the timeline for a post-quantum reality rapidly accelerates.
Satoshi suggested that Bitcoin can gradually adjust to a post-quantum reality more than a decade ago, but that window is closing faster than expected.
Now, some contemporary Bitcoin champions have begun shouting with newfound urgency, warning that elliptic curve cryptography is nearing obsolescence and that without a shift toward cryptographic agility, Bitcoin risks falling behind more proactive ecosystems like Ethereum.
The Ethereum Foundation recently launched a dedicated post-quantum portal, which is a comprehensive repository of post-quantum (PQ) information pertaining to Ethereum, the product of 8+ years of research from the EF's Protocol Architecture and Protocol Coordination teams.
Google just released a warning for cryptocurrency that the number of qubits required to break ECDSA is 20x less than previously thought.
— RYAN SΞAN ADAMS - rsa.eth 🦄 (@RyanSAdams) March 31, 2026
They have proof.
They’re (strongly?) recommending crypto upgrade to post-quantum by 2029 now.
4 years!?
Timelines are accelerating rapidly. https://t.co/EvSmGF6bYm
