Safely storing bitcoins

[arhipova]

I was reading a news article saying that bitcoins will not be safe once we have powerful quantum computers. Is there a good alternative way to store bitcoins safely in such a situation  ?

[Dunamisx]

Don't let the mentality of quantum downgrade your knowledge about bitcoin, they are two different things and one cannot affect the other, instead, the introduction of quantum will only aid for more accurate and fast delivery of what we are doing under digital networks, so I would rather see it as a compliment than a threat to the security and safety of the bitcoin network, just as we have the bitcoin lightning network, some still go against it till today while some truly understand what it's meant for.

[Churchillvv]

I was reading a news article saying that bitcoins will not be safe once we have powerful quantum computers. Is there a good alternative way to store bitcoins safely in such a situation  ?

Speculations has been going around that the bitcoin system will be broken by quantum computing in the next decade but however the possibility of this happening is a 50/50 chance, no one knows the next minute of there life hence we do not know if truly something of that nature is going to happen to bitcoin but I person believe it's not going to happen having known that everyday there is a new upgrade or update done in the bitcoin system.

Additionally, what we are talking about here is not the safety of your coins in a wallet but a big being found in the bitcoin network system not our wallets getting hacked, if you're looking for a way to store your bitcoin safely then you should look into to an open source wallet, either cold or hot wallet. for holding bitcoin best is use Electrum. And best way to keep your bitcoin safe is keeping it in a cold wallet in an office loo une device/airgapped device.

[Oshosondy]

I was reading a news article saying that bitcoins will not be safe once we have powerful quantum computers. Is there a good alternative way to store bitcoins safely in such a situation  ?

If you send bitcoin to someone, know that the public key of the address as been exposed on the blockchain where anyone can know it. The quantum computers can only know the private key of the exposed public key. So do not reuse the address for another transaction and you will not be affected.

Don't let the mentality of quantum downgrade your knowledge about bitcoin, they are two different things and one cannot affect the other, instead, the introduction of quantum will only aid for more accurate and fast delivery of what we are doing under digital networks, so I would rather see it as a compliment than a threat to the security and safety of the bitcoin network, just as we have the bitcoin lightning network, some still go against it till today while some truly understand what it's meant for.

Quantum computers are threat to bitcoin as of now.

@Churchillvv, you can also read what I posted. Quantum computers are threat for now and the way to protect yourself is what I posted above. Do not reuse bitcoin address once you use it to make transactions.

[NotATether]

Bitcoin developers are researching address types that use quantum-resistant signatures. Once those are created, you should be able to simply move your coins to such an address to mitigate the quantum computer threat in the future.

[virasog]

I was reading a news article saying that bitcoins will not be safe once we have powerful quantum computers. Is there a good alternative way to store bitcoins safely in such a situation  ?

If you send bitcoin to someone, know that the public key of the address as been exposed on the blockchain where anyone can know it. The quantum computers can only know the private key of the exposed public key. So do not reuse the address for another transaction and you will not be affected.

Just to be clear, let's suppose I have some bitcoin in my electrum wallet. So i send those bitcoins to another address on the same wallet or i create a new wallet and send all my bitcoins to that address. Since in both cases, these addresses are used first time, so their public key isn't exposed or it is already exposed since they are used once ?

If the later case is true, then there is no bitcoin address in the world which contains the bitcoins and its public key is not exposed on the blockchain

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

I was reading a news article saying that bitcoins will not be safe once we have powerful quantum computers. Is there a good alternative way to store bitcoins safely in such a situation  ?

Don't think too far about quantum computer threat and you must consider another big thing at the present. Did you already store your bitcoin safely now?

You must do it well now before thinking of how to do it in future by adapting to quantum computer threat. Developers will adapt to that threat and create something new technically to be not affected by quantum computers.

How to store your bitcoin safely?
It's complicated procedure from how you choose a good wallet to store bitcoin, how you download, install it, or buy it, and verify things before using that wallet for storage. It also relates to how you backup your wallet, test the backup with recovery, and make sure that you always can recover your Bitcoin wallet from backups.

How to back up a seed phrase ?

[Ryu_Ar1]

I was reading a news article saying that bitcoins will not be safe once we have powerful quantum computers. Is there a good alternative way to store bitcoins safely in such a situation  ?

Okay for other coins maybe it can but bitcoin? I don't think it can be that easy because after all it currently has 733 exa hashes as a wall of energy and say there is a group or an individual who created a quantum computer to break into this system? I think it's difficult and even seems impossible.
Indeed, if in the end talking about the possibility of everything that happens there is always a possibility even though it is small but talking about a quantum computer as if it could make bitcoin hackable for me is ridiculous.

The bitcoin that we have can indeed be stolen but that does not mean it is the fault of bitcoin but we ourselves cannot secure the bitcoin and glorify quantum computers as if they can do anything I don't think we are dreaming of that.
Bitcoin is still bitcoin and statements like this are only to make us mentally weak and I think we even though we have to be vigilant but that doesn't mean we have to fully believe in this.

[DanWalker]

I've been hearing about quantum computers since the early days of the market and I'm just as skeptical and concerned as you, OP.

But you know what, after all these years, bitcoin continues to grow and become popular globally with the recognition of many organizations, companies and especially governments. Bitcoin has become a mainstream asset and could compete with assets like gold and stocks, but the threat from quantum computers remains just a rumor.

There is no real threat and it is all just rumors, so don't worry too much.

[Sanitough]

I was reading a news article saying that bitcoins will not be safe once we have powerful quantum computers. Is there a good alternative way to store bitcoins safely in such a situation  ?

It’s not the storage you should be worried about. If it’s true that quantum computing can break the Bitcoin network, then that means all BTC could disappear or become useless. But honestly, don’t overthink it as there’s no solid proof behind that. It’s mostly just FUD being pushed around. In reality, Bitcoin is still safe. Just look at the institutional investors, they wouldn’t be putting in serious money if they believed there was a high chance it could all collapse.

[melinoe]

I've been hearing about quantum computers since the early days of the market and I'm just as skeptical and concerned as you, OP.

But you know what, after all these years, bitcoin continues to grow and become popular globally with the recognition of many organizations, companies and especially governments. Bitcoin has become a mainstream asset and could compete with assets like gold and stocks, but the threat from quantum computers remains just a rumor.

There is no real threat and it is all just rumors, so don't worry too much.

As of now, we can only speculate and await what to come - if anything, it's still interesting to hear the news in the field, yet the practical implementations are far from there, on a mass-usage scale, that is.

[MeGold666]

It really surprises me that there are still people who can't grasp the fact that quantum computers will break current cryptography in Bitcoin in less than ten years.

Don't listen to people who say it's 50/50, a speculation or just some kind of scare tactic, read what cryptographers have to say about it, not some random Joe who only knows what he read on forums or heard on YouTube.
Then you'll understand why quantum-resistant cryptography is already being heavily developed and tested.

Due to Bitcoin's transparent nature, old addresses holding thousands of coins could be easily targeted and taken over by an adversary using quantum computers.

Bitcoin will need to hard-fork and either take action regarding these old addresses or simply leave them to be taken over.

If Bitcoin doesn't hard-fork in time, it's game over.

As for the OP's question, you could send your coins to a newly generated wallet address, such as P2PKH or P2WPKH, which do not publish your public key on the chain.
The public key is only revealed when the coins are spent, giving you protection against certain cryptographic attack vectors.

[MarjorieZimmermanGinger]

I was reading a news article saying that bitcoins will not be safe once we have powerful quantum computers. Is there a good alternative way to store bitcoins safely in such a situation  ?

Don't reuse the same address for other transactions, so you're much safer when using quantum computers. Nothing is truly secure for asset storage if someone isn't careful. Even if a wallet is sophisticated, if it's not well-secured, it can sometimes be hacked. As far as I know, quantum computers will only record the private key and the public key, so the solution is not to use the same address for multiple transactions. There's been extensive discussion on forums about asset security, and you might want to research the appropriate steps to better understand the best practices.

[Smartprofit]

I was reading a news article saying that bitcoins will not be safe once we have powerful quantum computers. Is there a good alternative way to store bitcoins safely in such a situation  ?

Let's imagine that we are criminals (in fact, honest people) and have access to the latest quantum computers capable of cracking modern encryption systems. Is it advisable for us (having such quantum computers) to hack bitcoin wallets of ordinary network users? At the same time, we even know in advance whether a specific bitcoin wallet contains satoshi for a large sum of money or not. Of course not! It is much more promising to hack the computer system of some large corporation that conducts an audit and inventory of its settlements once a quarter. During this time, many fictitious payments can be created in the corporation's accounting system, which will allow very large sums of money to be quietly stolen.  This is exactly what real criminals do, there have been such examples in history 👮

For real criminals who have received a super-effective tool for cracking codes, Bitcoin is far from the most interesting object for attack🦖

For example, if such quantum computers fall into the hands of state intelligence agencies (and this is most likely what will happen in practice), then their main interest will not be in Bitcoin, but in the military and industrial secrets of other states🥥

It is also necessary to take into account that the Bitcoin developers know perfectly well how to protect the network of the first cryptocurrency from such attacks. And if they have not yet changed the Bitcoin code, have not made the appropriate changes, it is only because these threats are currently potential, not real.💻

[Porfirii]

OP, this is not the ultimate solution against future threats because of quantum computing, but you should read d5000's guide: Fees are low? Make your coins more private and (almost) quantum safe!.

I think that the author explains some very easy and good practices that can prevent you from unwanted surprises in the future and everyone should know. It is also available in more than 10 languages for better understanding of those who are not native English speakers here.

[fikrett]

Don't reuse the same address for other transactions, so you're much safer when using quantum computers. Nothing is truly secure for asset storage if someone isn't careful. Even if a wallet is sophisticated, if it's not well-secured, it can sometimes be hacked. As far as I know, quantum computers will only record the private key and the public key, so the solution is not to use the same address for multiple transactions. There's been extensive discussion on forums about asset security, and you might want to research the appropriate steps to better understand the best practices.

The technology is there, but usually the error are in the human factor field, you are right.

And as it was outlined - there are already articles and threads regarding what can be done about it, which is truly awesome.

[nakamura12]

It's been discussed many times if bitcoin will be safe if quantum computing can make bitcoin vulnerable. The answer for some people would be focus at the present rather than the future which won't happen yet. Maybe you wouldn't be alive anymore when that time comes that's why I would also say that don't let the mentality affect your decision right now and even in the future. For now, focus on keeping your security strong and not use single wallet instead use more than one wallets.

[tabas]

I was reading a news article saying that bitcoins will not be safe once we have powerful quantum computers. Is there a good alternative way to store bitcoins safely in such a situation  ?

Been hearing that since a while. But to tell you, there is nothing to worry about it, if it has happened then we're the first one to know it. Even so, it's more of a FUD to make people not buy Bitcoin although quantum computers were already there. In fact, China uses that and other powerful countries for specific innovation but did we hear them cracking down Bitcoin's network and decrypting wallets? no.
I guess you're now confused because the answers are yes and nos here.

[sheenshane]

It's been a humor among most speculators and might still be theoretical, taking many years before it happens, if it ever does. 
Sometimes, to avoid headaches, I choose not to think about what might occur in the future.
As of now, there's no need to panic.  There's no known quantum computer today that can break Bitcoin private keys.
Don't dwell too much on the future, as we don't even know if we will still be alive when quantum computers are discovered.

Remember that Bitcoin’s security based on a cryptographic method known as the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm.
Thus, breaking a Bitcoin private key requires solving a very difficult mathematical problem.
As long as you own your private key and never expose it, you're safe.

[Odogwu-Blockchain]

Bitcoin developers are researching address types that use quantum-resistant signatures. Once those are created, you should be able to simply move your coins to such an address to mitigate the quantum computer threat in the future.

If Bitcoin developer finally come up the solutions to this problem, then most of the wallet we using will be uninstalled, and more new wallets will be created as well?
I'm just thinking this maybe these quantum resistance addresses will be supplied to every wallets out there?

How would it done?