Coinbase, BlackRock, Fidelity, and six other firms launched the Bitcoin Security Consortium, a $15 million initiative over three years to protect Bitcoin from future quantum computing threats.
The group will fund developers, researchers, and nonprofits working on post-quantum cryptography for Bitcoin. Day-to-day coordination falls to Mike Schmidt of Brink, a nonprofit that pays Bitcoin developers, who will run the effort without pay.
How the Bitcoin Security Consortium works
The $15 million works differently from a traditional fund: no shared pot exists, and each firm will independently disburse its share to developers, researchers, or nonprofits of its choosing. The consortium will stay neutral on any proposed Bitcoin upgrades and will not act as a spokesperson for the network’s developers.
BlackRock’s Robert Mitchnick praised Bitcoin’s core developers for doing “incredibly important work” and said the group would supply more funding for Bitcoin’s security over the long run. Strategy CEO Phong Le tied the pledge to self-interest: “As long-term holders, we have every incentive to see Bitcoin remain secure for generations.”
The post-quantum push
The consortium’s launch follows Coinbase’s broader post-quantum preparedness efforts. The company has founded an Independent Advisory Board on Quantum Computing and Blockchain, begun building a post-quantum key management system (PQ-CoreKMS), and will co-host working sessions with Bitcoin developers at Stanford in August.
Coinbase is also dedicating engineering talent to open-source contributions supporting proposals like BIP-360 [Bitcoin Improvement Proposal introducing Pay-to-Merkle-Root (P2MR)]. The quantum threat is not imminent, but the timeline is uncertain, and the preparation needs to happen now.
The quantum threat to Bitcoin: Why now?
The creation of this consortium really shows how everyone is starting to agree that quantum computing is a serious threat to the very building blocks of Bitcoin’s security. Basically, Bitcoin relies on Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) signatures, but the problem is that these are actually quite weak against Shor’s algorithm once quantum tech catches up.
A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could derive private keys from public keys, potentially allowing an attacker to spend Bitcoin from any address whose public key has been exposed.
Now, addresses that haven’t actually sent any Bitcoin yet (where you can only see a hash of the public key) have a bit of a safety net, but the reality is that the vast majority of Bitcoin being moved around today is sitting in addresses that have already let their public keys be seen by the network.
The timeline is uncertain (estimates range from 5 to 20 years), but the preparation needs to happen now. The Bitcoin Security Consortium’s formation follows key developments in quantum computing: Google’s quantum chip, Microsoft’s “quantum supercomputer” roadmap, and the U.S. government’s push for post-quantum cryptography adoption.
For anyone hodling Bitcoin, the work this group is doing is super important, mainly because changing the protocol requires getting everyone to agree, and switching over to post-quantum signatures is going to be a massive team effort for the whole ecosystem.
By funding the developers who are working on proposals like BIP-360, the consortium is taking a real, hands-on step toward making sure Bitcoin stays secure for future generations.
