Bitcoin and Ethereum Push Toward Quantum-Resistant Upgrades as US Backs Hardware Development

The US Commerce Department finalized CHIPS Act awards worth up to $100 million each for quantum computing firms Rigetti, D Wave and Quantinuum, taking minority stakes in all three companies. The funding targets hardware scaling, manufacturing and error-correction systems needed to build larger, fault-tolerant quantum machines, arriving just as blockchain developers race to protect their networks from future quantum threats.

Both Networks Target Similar Timeline

Ethereum’s protocol team has set December 2029 as a self-imposed deadline to make its base layer quantum-resistant, planning around the possibility that a cryptographically significant quantum breakthrough could arrive as early as 2030. Bitcoin lacks a formal network wide deadline but has seen accelerated work this year on proposals for post-quantum signature types and a phased migration path away from current cryptographic standards, with researchers similarly discussing 2029 as a critical window.

Migration Poses Unique Challenges for Bitcoin

No quantum computer capable of breaking current cryptography is expected by 2029, though major tech companies are targeting fault-tolerant machines with hundreds of logical qubits around that timeframe.

The transition is particularly complicated for Bitcoin, since millions of coins, including those believed to belong to creator Satoshi Nakamoto, sit in addresses with already-exposed public keys, raising concerns about stranding funds if users fail to migrate in time. Ethereum faces a different challenge, needing to coordinate wallets, applications and users onto new signature systems well beyond its base-layer upgrade.