Securing Elliptic Curve Cryptocurrencies against Quantum Vulnerabilities: Resource Estimates and Mitigations

arXiv (Cornell University) 2026 Preprint Open access

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Authors: R. Babbush, Adam Zalcman, Craig Gidney, Michael Broughton, Tanuj Khattar, Hartmut Neven, Thiago Bergamaschi, Justin Drake, Dan Boneh
DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2603.28846
Cited by: 1

Abstract

This whitepaper seeks to elucidate implications that the capabilities of developing quantum architectures have on blockchain vulnerabilities and mitigation strategies. First, we provide new resource estimates for breaking the 256-bit Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem, the core of modern blockchain cryptography. We demonstrate that Shor's algorithm for this problem can execute with either

Fields of Study & Subjects

Blockchain Technology Applications and Security Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture Cryptography and Data Security

Publication details

Journal / source
arXiv (Cornell University)
Publication date
30 March 2026
Document type
Preprint