Fidelity Digital Assets released a research report titled 'Bitcoin’s Path to Quantum Resistance', analyzing that while cryptographic upgrades for the Bitcoin network to withstand quantum computers are technically possible, achieving consensus within the decentralized community will be the biggest challenge. The report emphasized that if a sufficiently powerful quantum computer executes Shor’s algorithm, it could derive a private key from a public key, posing a risk of asset leakage. However, it noted that a cryptographically relevant quantum computer (CRQC) capable of breaking Bitcoin's encryption is not commercially available at present. It then cited Blockstream’s SHRINCS BIP as a promising quantum-resistant alternative. This is a hybrid model that combines Stateful and Stateless hash signatures to optimize both efficiency and security simultaneously. However, due to Bitcoin's decentralized nature with no central authority, reaching social consensus among developers, miners, and node operators was pointed out as a greater difficulty than technical development.
