The Main Point: Governance Over Cryptography
Bitcoin uses elliptic curve cryptography to store funds, and it’s possible that a big enough quantum computer could get a private key from a public one, thereby stealing funds. The National Institute of Standards and Technology is already preparing for that to happen, which means it’s a realistic concern down the road, and a number of cryptographic standards have been created to deal with it.
Hoskinson’s point was that it’s not that there’s anything wrong with a given quantum attack vector that could be used to steal funds in Bitcoin’s elliptic curve implementation. He doesn’t see an immediate problem, but argues that the Bitcoin protocol lacks a system by which a protocol-level emergency response could be approved and deployed – because any such change would require miner consensus, developer consensus, node operator consensus, exchange and wallet support etc.
Bitcoin is Solving the Problem Already
That said, the Bitcoin developer community is not ignoring the issue:
- Bitcoin Otpay analyzes BIP 361, which describes a gradual transition from the ECDSA/Schnorr signatures to post-quantum cryptographic standard.
- Proposals for new address formats and hybrid signatures are currently under discussion.
- Experts are considering options to freeze or move funds, or leave them alone, since millions of Bitcoins reside in addresses with public keys exposed and vulnerable to quantum attack.
It is the logistics of transitions, not the coding and re-launching itself, which would be challenging and time-consuming, requiring the cooperation of wallets, exchanges, custodians, and ordinary people who have not touched their crypto in years.
How the Cardano Say Works: Voting Mechanism Already in Place
The argument of Cardano actually lies in the structure; starting from the Plomin hard fork in January 2025 ADA holders could vote directly or indirectly through the elected representatives (DReps). Not only the views of Stakeholders and DReps are taken into account, but also that of Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) and constitutional committees. The system was introduced with the Van Rossem hard fork on July 18 activating version 11 of the protocol.
Per a report by Coindesk on the Cardano hard fork, it was the first one to be proposed, discussed and approved by the community, as opposed to IO.Global, the company behind the blockchain, suggesting it directly. It is also important to note that the Van Rossem hard fork did not have an outright yes from the community, either. It has passed by the approval of 53% of the pool operators.
| Approval body | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Delegated representatives (DReps) | 78.97% in favor |
| Constitutional committee | 7/7 members, compliant |
| Stake pool operators | 53.02% in favor |
The fork cuts smart contract execution costs and readies the ledger for Ouroboros Leios, a scaling upgrade Hoskinson says could make Cardano “60 times faster” – his estimate, not a measured benchmark yet.
The Conclusion
Cardano has not yet been able to accomplish a quantum migration, though it has been able to fund research into it. Furthermore, its system is not completely frictionless, as some of the suggestions of Hoskinson and IOHK have been voted down.
The upshot is that both are currently flying planes while building them, in a way, but Bitcoin prefers slow consensus to getting things done, while Cardano is attempting to get around that by trying to get in a formal vote to get things passed.
