Who gets Satoshi Nakamoto’s 1.1 million bitcoin, and, for that matter, millions more that are at risk if quantum computers become powerful enough to break the security protecting it, has been a topic of intense debate for quite some time.

Christopher Smith, CEO of quantum-resistant layer-1 blockchain Quantus, believes whoever develops that technology first could take those tokens worth billions, potentially with government backing.

“The most likely scenario is that whoever gets the first CRQC (Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computer) will take them, probably with the blessing of whichever national government,” Smith told CoinDesk. “Hopefully it’s a government that likes bitcoin.”

The security researcher and protocol engineer’s warning comes as nine crypto companies unveiled the Quantum Alliance on Thursday to develop common security standards for bitcoin, Ethereum and other blockchain networks.

The concern is that future quantum computers could reverse-engineer a wallet’s publicly visible key to uncover its secret key, allowing attackers to steal funds. The Alliance estimates that 6.4 million bitcoin, or 30.2% of the supply, have public keys already exposed. Those coins, it clarified, cannot be stolen this way today because no existing quantum computer is yet powerful enough.

The first question many are asking today is when quantum computers will actually be a threat to bitcoin. Bryn Bennett, chief revenue officer at The Vault, responded: “Nobody knows the date, but the estimates keep falling, and the risk is one we can already plan for.

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