Coinbase’s quantum advisory board released a report warning that sufficiently powerful quantum computers could one day break the cryptography securing digital assets and advising blockchains on preparing for that threat. The Independent Advisory Board on Quantum Computing and Blockchain said it has high confidence such machines will eventually be built, though they are not yet available and would need to be orders of magnitude more powerful than today’s systems—likely at least a decade away.
The report highlights Algorand and Aptos as comparatively well positioned for a transition to post-quantum security. Algorand has a staged roadmap toward full quantum readiness and has already deployed quantum-resistant cryptographic tools at the transaction and execution layers; users can create quantum-resistant accounts without protocol changes, and Algorand completed its first quantum-resistant transaction on mainnet. However, the board noted that some Algorand components—like block proposals and committee voting—remain vulnerable and are under research for hardening.
Aptos is cited as “well positioned” because its account model stores a user’s public key as account metadata rather than deriving addresses from public-key hashes. That design lets users make a single transaction to update an authentication key to a post-quantum public key without moving assets to a new account.
The board warned that proof-of-stake chains, including Ethereum and Solana, may face greater risk due to the signature schemes validators use. Solana has introduced a new signature scheme and allows users to migrate tokens to addresses based on the upgraded scheme, removing exposure to quantum attackers. Ethereum also has a roadmap to upgrade signatures to quantum-resistant alternatives.
The report discusses remediation approaches—encouraging user migration to quantum-proof wallets, and the risk that assets tied to quantum-vulnerable wallets could be irretrievably lost if not migrated. While the advisory stresses urgency in planning and deployment of defenses, it reiterates that the quantum threat to blockchains is not immediate.
