Exclusive: Tim Draper Reveals Why Quantum Computers Will Actually Protect Bitcoin

Tim Draper is a venture capital legend. As a founding partner of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and Draper Associates, he’s backed some of tech’s biggest names — Tesla, SpaceX, Hotmail, Skype, and Coinbase. But beyond the unicorns, Draper has become one of crypto’s most vocal advocates. A self-described Bitcoin maximalist, he sees the world moving toward a future where Bitcoin, not the dollar, becomes the default currency.

We caught up with Tim at Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas, where thousands gathered for the year’s most anticipated crypto event. What followed was a refreshingly candid conversation about Bitcoin’s trajectory, quantum computing, DeFi security, and why he thinks we’re living through what he calls Bitcoin’s “singularity moment.”

– Hi, Tim! We’re so happy to meet you at Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas. As an influential voice in the crypto space, we’d love to hear your perspective. Share your point of view on the Bitcoin and the whole crypto market right now. You’ve been in crypto for so many years — what’s driving the momentum this year?

I think it just keeps getting better and more useful. Anything that has been kind of invented on any other cryptocurrency is now being ported to Bitcoin. So that’s very exciting.

I think we’re coming to a point where it’s sort of like the singularity in AI. We’ve got sort of a singularity in Bitcoin. What would you call it—”Bitcoinularity”?

Where more people want to hold Bitcoin than they do dollars. And when those lines cross, then the retailer will say we only accept Bitcoin. So I think that could be a great moment for Bitcoin. And I mean, it is kind of amazing—the best technologies, no matter how governments get in the way or whatever, eventually they see the light. And Bitcoin is a lot less friction than banks and governments. So I think we’re better off with something written in software and immutable and transparent that keeps perfect records.

– Absolutely. You know, we’re all waiting for the Clarity Act. Do you anticipate it will come this year?

Yeah, I think they’re trying to work that out. I know the bankers are lobbying that. They’re trying to make it so people can’t get a coupon on their stable coin. I think that’s ridiculous.

But eventually, I’m looking forward to sort of the third act. And the third act will be when, if I run a business entirely in Bitcoin and the whole thing is run on Bitcoin, the taxes can be paid automatically. Everything’s kept. All the accounting is kept on the blockchain. And so I don’t need any of that friction. I don’t need the accountant, the lawyer, the bookkeeper, the transfer agent, the tax collector. I don’t need any of that because it’s all done. Once the smart contracts are put in place, it’s all done.

– There seems to be some misunderstanding around quantum computing and Bitcoin security. A lot of people are worried because Bitcoin isn’t yet quantum-protected. What’s your take on that?

Yeah, the banks should be very scared. Because what would you do if you had quantum computing? You’d go up to the banks because they’re weak.

The quantum computers are actually going to start by mining Bitcoin. And if they’re mining Bitcoin, then they’re protecting Bitcoin. So the miners actually protect Bitcoin. That’s the way it works, yeah. And so the first uses of quantum computing will be protecting Bitcoin. So I think it’s pretty secure. But if you’re a bank, you’re probably freaking out.

And so the first uses of quantum computing will be protecting Bitcoin. So I think it’s pretty secure.

– So you don’t see that we should implement some kind of code layer to make Bitcoin quantum resistant?

Oh, a lot of people are doing that. But I think most of the miners will use quantum computing right away, and that will protect Bitcoin naturally.

The other thing is, a bank can’t take back all the messed up things that happen. Because I’ve actually been hacked in my bank account and they weren’t able to unravel it. But with Bitcoin, as we know: when Bitcoin was getting started and there was a hack or something that happened, somebody branched off that they didn’t want to branch off. They just rolled it back. So there is always like the nuclear option, which is to roll back Bitcoin.

– We’ve seen several high-profile hacks this year, including Drift Protocol. Do you think these incidents threaten the future of DeFi, or should the focus be on strengthening security protocols?

I think everything should be decentralized. I think we should decentralize everything. I think we’re all better off when decisions are made locally, when software is built for local purposes.

Whenever you start dealing with making a decision that changes the lives of 300 million people, you should be very careful. Yeah, I mean really careful, absolutely. And if you’re doing something to change the lives of, like in China’s case, 1.3 billion people, you shouldn’t assume that you know better than all of those people what they should be doing. So they need a new leader. We do know that.

– What do you think about Bitcoin’s price? I’m sorry for this question, but it’s quite interesting to know your vision. What do you think by the end of the year? How far can we go with Bitcoin?

Well, eventually, I actually think the dollar is going to be obsolete the way the Confederate dollar was. So I think at that point we might have hyperinflation and a run on the banks like they had when the Confederate dollar went badly.

So I think everyone should own Bitcoin. And if they really think about it, they should own enough Bitcoin to keep their business going for four weeks, and they should own enough Bitcoin to keep their family alive for maybe six months. And if you’re a government, it should be in your national treasury so that you can, in effect, hedge against this. A lot of people are saying there’s a non-zero probability that just keeps increasing.

But what about Bitcoin price?

If the dollar becomes obsolete, the price of Bitcoin against the dollar is infinite. So along the way, the price is going to go through its cycles because of the halving. It used to be called the “having,” the halving. And the halving is coming in about a year, so there will probably be a ramp up to the halving, and then it’ll go higher after the halving.

And if there’s more excitement and Bitcoin is even more useful—because now they can run Bitcoin transactions at 50 million transactions a second. It used to be the argument that it wasn’t fast enough. Now it’s incredibly fast, just faster than Visa.

So I think we’re seeing more and more applications to Bitcoin. When it’s easier to use and more transparent, and when retailers say, “I’d rather have Bitcoin than dollars,” there may be trouble in dollarville.