Bitcoin and Ethereum developers are speeding up work to protect their networks from future quantum-computing attacks.

The move comes as the US Commerce Department finalized CHIPS Act awards of up to US$100 million each for Rigetti, D-Wave, and Quantinuum, and took minority stakes in the three quantum-computing companies.

Ethereum is targeting quantum resistance for its base layer by December 2029.

Its security roadmap includes post-quantum cryptography as a protocol security priority.

On Bitcoin, work has accelerated around Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 360, which proposes a post-quantum output type.

Developers have also proposed a broader migration path in Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 361.

Google said earlier this year that attacking 256-bit elliptic-curve cryptography could require fewer than 1,200 error-corrected qubits.

Bitcoin faces extra pressure because millions of bitcoin are held in addresses with public keys already exposed.

The urgency aligns with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidance that the shift to post-quantum cryptography is a multi-year process that requires early planning.

🔗 Source: CoinDesk