Google Prepares for The Post-Quantum Era And Puts Pressure On Bitcoin

The announcement dates back to Tuesday, March 25, 2026. Google has just published an official timeline for migration to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) by 2029. Behind this technical deadline lies a reality that directly concerns bitcoin holders: quantum computers are advancing… fast.

Bitcoin facing the quantum threat: why is 2029 a significant date?

Heather Adkins, Google’s VP of security, and Sophie Schmieg, cryptography engineer, signed an unequivocal official note. According to them, the quantum frontiers seem closer than they appear. The threat is approaching fast.

In the timeline, they identify two types of risks, and the first is happening now. Malicious actors are currently collecting encrypted data, intending to decrypt it later. This technique is called “harvest now, decrypt later”. The second is a future risk: when a powerful enough quantum computer becomes operational, it will be able to break the digital signatures that secure the Internet.

The Bitcoin crypto network relies on ECDSA, elliptic curve signatures. This is precisely the type of algorithm that Shor’s algorithm can theoretically break. Result: from an exposed public key, a quantum computer could derive the private key. And then, the funds would be within reach.

According to Project Eleven, a company specializing in quantum security, about 6.8 million bitcoins are in vulnerable addresses. That represents over 470 billion dollars. Meanwhile, Ark Invest and Unchained estimate that 35% of the total BTC supply would eventually be exposed.

How can Bitcoin protect itself before the 2029 Q-Day?

The problem is not only technical. It also concerns governance.

• Google controls its infrastructure.
• Bitcoin obeys a decentralized consensus.
• No team can decide a migration alone.
• Every miner, developer, exchange, and user must move simultaneously.

Jameson Lopp, co-founder of bitcoin custody service Casa, is direct:

Currently, we are still very far from having a quantum computer usable in cryptography, at least according to our knowledge.

He adds, however, that the Bitcoin crypto network migration could alone take five to ten years.

A concrete proposal does exist: BIP 360 (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal). It introduces a quantum-resistant address format called Pay-to-Merkle-Root. This proposal has been officially added to the formal bitcoin proposal repository. It activates nothing yet. But it starts the clock.

On Google’s side, the response is already underway. Android 17 will integrate ML-DSA, an algorithm standardized by the NIST to secure digital signatures. IBM aims for the same horizons. The race is now on. And the most recent estimates from Iceberg Quantum suggest that only 100,000 qubits (compared to 20 million previously) would now be enough to threaten current systems.

2029 is therefore no longer an abstraction. It is a deadline. Google set it for itself. Bitcoin has not decided yet. Now, the real question is whether the crypto community will act before the threat becomes reality.