How a quantum computer can be used to actually steal your bitcoin in '9 minutes'

Part one explained the physics of quantum computing. This piece explains the target — how bitcoin's encryption works, why a quantum algorithm breaks it, and what Google's paper changed about the timeline. What to know : Bitcoin’s security relies on elliptic curve cryptography, a one-way mathematical function that makes deriving a private key from a public key effectively impossible for traditional computers. Shor’s algorithm allows a sufficiently powerful quantum computer to efficiently reverse this one-way function, turning a bitcoin public key into its corresponding private key and enabling theft. A recent Google-led paper outlines a realistic attack in which a future quantum computer could, within about nine minutes, derive a private key from an exposed public key and potentially front-run or drain vulnerable bitcoin wallets.