It relies heavily on elliptic curve cryptography. In an interview, Mr. Vaughn said N.S.A. officials sent math experts to the conferences he sponsored. “They always had people there,” he recalled.

Estimates for the fall of RSA and Elliptic Curve cryptography vary wildly, with some experts saying it's still two or more decades away. Other experts warn it will happen as soon as by 2035.

PsiQuantum publishes paper projecting a 700x reduction in the computational resource requirements for breaking Elliptic Curve Cryptography using a fault tolerant quantum computer.

Quantum computing is on the horizon, promising to solve complex problems beyond the capabilities of classical computers. But for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which rely on today’s ...