This “smart precaution” for dummies can protect your bitcoin from quantum attacks

While bitcoin (BTC) developers are working on solutions that would make the network and its cryptocurrency resilient to possible quantum attacks, you can already take small steps to make your long-term BTC holdings more secure until a more permanent solution is implemented.

All you need to do is move your BTC to a specific type of address, and, well, try not to spend your coins. This possible temporary solution has now resurfaced thanks to popular bitcoin analyst and investor Willy Woo, who posted a "Dummies Guide to Being Quantum Safe" today.

In short, it works as follows: in your wallet, you need to create a bitcoin address or addresses that are not so-called Taproot addresses, or the latest BTC address format that starts with "bc1p." Meaning, most likely, you'll be using the previous format, also known as a Segwit address, which starts with "bc1q."

Next, you move your BTC to this new address, or, depending on your needs, multiple addresses, hiding your holdings from a potential quantum threat that no one knows when it might materialize exactly. The caveat here is that when you spend your BTC from these new addresses, they become vulnerable again, and you would need to move your funds to a new address.

This is because when you spend your BTC, your cryptographic public key is exposed, giving a quantum computer the opportunity to derive your private key from it and gain access to your BTC, which is currently impossible for conventional computers.

"The present-day taproot addresses (the latest format) are NOT safe, these are addresses starting with 'bc1p' and they embed the public key into the address, not good. Prior formats hide the public key behind a hash, so a BSQC [big scary quantum computer] can't easily crack it," Woo explained.

According to him, you can still send new BTC to these newly created addresses while waiting for bitcoin to upgrade to a quantum-safe protocol, but "this may take seven years, who knows."

Jonas Schnelli, a former bitcoin developer and maintainer, corroborated that it's good advice to move your BTC from a Taproot address as it exposes your public key immediately.

However, Schnelli urged against calling this solution "quantum safe," as it's only "a smart precaution, not a permanent solution." This is because, for the aforementioned reason, spending from this address can make it an easy target for a quantum computer again.

Woo suggested that wallets can automatically move BTC to a new non-Taproot address after Bitcoin is spent from the, e.g., Segwit address.

However, as millions of BTC are considered to be lost, these coins might be stolen by an attacker, including 1 million BTC that are attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of bitcoin (there are debates ongoing about whether these coins should be frozen, which could negatively affect the image of bitcoin as a censorship-resistant technology).

In a recent report, based "on six months of discussions with experts in the bitcoin field," the Human Rights Foundation said that "preparing bitcoin for a post-quantum world is a human rights imperative."

The report estimates that more than 6 million BTC may be vulnerable now, while experts suggest that cryptographically relevant quantum computers could emerge within the next five years, and implementing quantum-resistant solutions could take years.

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