Google has warned that future quantum computers could let thieves steal cryptocurrency by breaking the security used to approve payments. New York is now investing $29.2 million in an NYU lab
Google has warned that future quantum computers could let thieves steal cryptocurrency by breaking the security used to approve payments.
New York is now investing $29.2 million in an NYU lab where researchers will make and test quantum chips and components.
Grayscale's head of research: Quantum computing is 'just another hurdle' Bitcoin will clear (3:10)To understand why the deal drew alarm from Bitcoin investor Nic Carter, start with how someone proves that they can spend their coins.
A Bitcoin private key is a secret number that lets its holder authorize payments. Wallet software uses that number to produce a digital signature, which the Bitcoin network checks before accepting a payment.
A public key is a related number that allows the network to check the signature without revealing the private key. Knowing the public key should not let anyone else spend the coins.
A powerful enough quantum computer could break that protection by calculating the private key from the public key, according to Bitcoin Optech. A thief with that private key could then sign a payment sending the victim's coins to the thief.
The coins at risk in this type of attack are those whose public keys an attacker can see. Google recommends avoiding the exposure or reuse of vulnerable wallet addresses while the cryptocurrency industry works on stronger protection.
Related: Quantum threat forces 63-year old investment bank to abandon Bitcoin
This is not a claim that today's quantum computers can empty Bitcoin wallets. The attack requires a machine powerful and reliable enough to finish the calculation, and Google's research does not announce such a machine.
The reason to prepare now is that Google's March 31 study lowered its estimate of the resources a future attacker would need.
Under specified hardware assumptions, researchers estimated that a machine with fewer than 500,000 quantum bits, or qubits, could complete the calculation in minutes.
That estimate is a warning to improve security before the machine exists, not evidence that Bitcoin has already been broken. It explains why new investment in quantum research attracts attention from Bitcoin holders, even when the research has other stated goals.
Mamdani's Oct. 14 announcement commits $29.2 million to QFab, a quantum fabrication facility at NYU. The university is contributing another $255 million for construction and 10 years of operations.
Expected to open in 2030, the 23,000-square-foot facility at 770 Broadway will provide equipment for making and testing quantum chips and components.
Think of QFab as a place to develop the pieces, not an announcement that a code-breaking machine is ready. Its cleanrooms, testing equipment and cryogenic systems will be available to researchers, students, startups and established companies, according to the city's release.
Quantum computing could break Bitcoin in 15 years, warns major security firm (2:18)That work could help advance quantum technology, which is why Bitcoin holders have a reason to watch it. But neither the city nor NYU's announcement identifies cryptocurrency attacks as a purpose, and neither presents a demonstration of one.
Mamdani described a different ambition: technologies that could change how people fight disease, store energy and exchange information.
"We want those technologies, investments and jobs to be created here in New York City," the mayor said in the public announcement. The city also promises training opportunities for CUNY and public-school students, linking the research investment to a local workforce.
Carter, a founding partner of Castle Island Ventures and a cofounder of crypto-data company Coin Metrics, responded to coverage of the deal with a blunt question.
"Is zohran is coming for our coins," he wrote.
The remark connects the mayor's investment to an existing Bitcoin anxiety, it does not establish that Mamdani plans to seize cryptocurrency. The project's publicly stated goals remain research, training and commercial development.
The city's answer is a voice in QFab and a share of certain future proceeds. New York will receive three seats on the facility's Executive Advisory Board.
The financial agreement is more specific than a claim that taxpayers get 15% of everything the lab produces.
When intellectual property is created using city-funded tools, New York will receive 15% of NYU Central Administration's proceeds from that intellectual property, according to the announcement. Those proceeds can include equity, royalties, milestone payments and patent licenses.
That is not a 15% stake in every company using QFab, and it is not a guaranteed return. The value depends on what gets invented, what succeeds commercially and what proceeds reach the university administration.
Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su put the principle simply:
"When the public invests in a new technology at the start, the public should share in the success."
Quantum-resistant alternatives are known, but adopting them would mean changes to Bitcoin's security design, with trade-offs such as larger signatures, Bitcoin Optech explains.
Research into those changes is not the same as a completed network upgrade.
Google is urging the cryptocurrency industry to prepare, not declaring that the system has already failed.
Its separate 2029 target is a deadline for moving its own systems toward post-quantum cryptography, not a prediction that Bitcoin will be broken that year. QFab's expected 2030 opening is likewise a construction timetable, not a date for a cryptocurrency attack.
Related: Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan sharply diverge on quantum computing
