Why Bitcoin’s Biggest Threat- and Opportunity Might- Come from Quantum Physics

About this episode

The episode explores the intersection of Bitcoin, cryptography, and quantum computing, discussing potential threats and opportunities posed by quantum physics to Bitcoin's security.

“Quantum computing is taking the laws of nature — light, heat, entanglement — and turning them into a new kind of computer. When that happens, the way we think about Bitcoin’s security will have to change forever.” — Charlie Shrem This week on The Charlie Shrem Show, we go deep into the strangest frontier yet: the intersection of Bitcoin, cryptography, and quantum computing. Charlie sits down with Olivier Roussy Newton, OG Bitcoiner and CEO of BTQ Technologies (NASDAQ: BTQ) — a company building at the edge where photons meet blockchains. From his early exposure to D-Wave’s first quantum computers in Canada to raising capital from Chinese state funds (and getting blocked by the CIA’s venture arm), Olivier’s story tracks the entire rise of the post-quantum security industry. Together, Charlie and Olivier unpack what it really means when we say “the end of ECDSA,” why the U.S. government plans to deprecate Bitcoin’s signature standard by 2035, and how quantum systems could make traditional mining obsolete. They explore how the analog world of nature — light, gravity, superconductors — can replace brute-force hashing, how “Boson sampling” could one day stand in for SHA-256, and why…

People in this episode

Host: Charlie Shrem

Guest: Olivier Roussy Newton

Topics covered

• Bitcoin
• quantum computing
• cryptography
• post-quantum security
• mining
• technology

Keywords

• quantum computing
• Bitcoin security
• ECDSA
• post-quantum security
• mining
• cryptography
• Boson sampling
• SHA-256

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: BTQ Technologies, CIA, D-Wave, U.S. government

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