[Nic Carter: Quantum computing is only an 'engineering challenge' away from breaking Bitcoin, putting 1.7 million BTC at risk of attack] BlockBeats news, December 20, Nic Carter, the father of smart contracts and co-founder of Castle Island Ventures, published a long article stating that renowned quantum theorist and scholar Scott Aaronson's research shows that quantum computing is merely an 'extremely difficult' engineering challenge away from breaking Bitcoin, rather than requiring new fundamental discoveries in physics. Nic Carter pointed out that, theoretically, Bitcoin could undergo a soft fork and adopt 'post-quantum' (PQ) signature schemes. Currently, there are indeed some quantum-resistant cryptographic signature schemes available. However, the main challenges lie in determining the specific post-quantum scheme, organizing the soft fork, and painstakingly migrating tens of millions of addresses with balances. As a result, the mitigation measures needed to protect Bitcoin from quantum computing attacks could take nearly a decade to implement. Additionally, since a large number of vulnerable Bitcoins are stored in abandoned addresses, and the owners of these addresses cannot be forced to transfer their Bitcoin, even if Bitcoin upgrades to post-quantum signatures, it still faces the risk of 1.7 million BTC being suddenly stolen by quantum attackers. Bitcoin not only needs to upgrade in an orderly and timely manner, but Bitcoin holders must also collectively agree to confiscate these 1.7 million BTC to eliminate this risk—a move unprecedented in Bitcoin's history. Therefore, Nic Carter urges and calls on the Bitcoin community and developers to take mitigation measures as soon as possible, rather than viewing the quantum computing threat with indifference and excessive optimism.