Coinbase Sets Up Quantum Watchdog to Stress-Test Blockchain Security

Coinbase is setting up an independent advisory board to prepare blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum for a future where large quantum computers could break today’s cryptography.

The company said on Thursday that the group will review evidence as quantum research advances and publish papers on risks, issue guidance for users and developers, and provide independent analysis after major quantum milestones. 

Quantum computing is both a technological opportunity and a security challenge. By bringing together the foremost experts in the world, Coinbase is ensuring that the blockchain ecosystem is prepared, not just reactive.

Coinbase

The board includes University of Texas at Austin professor Scott Aaronson; Dahlia Malkhi, who leads UC Santa Barbara’s Foundations of Fintech Research Lab; Stanford cryptographer Dan Boneh; Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake; University of Washington associate professor and EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan; and Coinbase head of cryptography Yehuda Lindell.

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Planning Early

Coinbase said quantum machines are not an immediate threat, but argued planning needs to start early because upgrading security standards across global networks can take years.

Blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum rely on elliptic-curve cryptography. 

Researchers have long warned that sufficiently powerful, error-corrected quantum computers could use Shor’s algorithm to derive private keys from public keys, potentially enabling theft from exposed addresses. Current quantum systems are still too small and unstable to do that, but the risk is increasingly being treated as a long-term engineering problem rather than a distant theory.

Similarly, cryptographers like Adam Back, referenced in the original Bitcoin whitepaper, believe that BTC is unlikely to face a serious threat from quantum computers because “cryptographically relevant” machines could take up to 40 years.

But work and research are being done. Developers across major networks have started mapping possible migration paths to “post-quantum” cryptography, including hybrid signature schemes that combine current and quantum-resistant methods, and staged upgrades designed to reduce coordination risk. 

As with anything in life, there are trade-offs, which in this case include slower performance and the difficulty of moving large networks in sync.

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