1/n After @PresidioBitcoin's Quantum Summit, a "big picture" is beginning to form. Here's a high-level view, informed by many of the brilliant talks and conversations. (Apologies to @brian_trollz for a rambling interview this morning when it was even more nascent and hazy.)

@PresidioBitcoin @brian_trollz 2/n Just like the idea of bitcoin itself, quantum issue turns on many different kinds of questions in many areas of expertise: a) STEM questions b) political questions c) ethical questions

@PresidioBitcoin @brian_trollz 3/n STEM: - time to cryptographically-relevant quantum compute -quantum-resistent, non-back-doored, bitcoin-adaptable signature schemes. -market impacts of quantum attack Expertise is in math, quantum engineering/markets, bitcoin, and finance.

@PresidioBitcoin @brian_trollz 4/ Politics -how will plebs, fiduciaries, governments react to various proposals -how likely is a fork

@PresidioBitcoin @brian_trollz 5/n ethics -what should be done about quantum-vulnerable coins?

@PresidioBitcoin @brian_trollz 6/n The ethical question is thorny and I don’t see how we could reach consensus on it. It’s also not the first question to ask. The order above is probably best to take these in: STEM -> politics -> ethics. Easier to find agreement on empirical questions than normative ones.

@PresidioBitcoin @brian_trollz 7/n because the fields are so varied in which we require knowledge, and the constituencies that matter span many worlds, we need conversations within an across communities. This event was a wonderful start, as they brought some quantum physicists / engineer / entrepreneurs.

@PresidioBitcoin @brian_trollz 8/n I came to this event to learn and am grateful to the organizers for letting me attend. I don’t have settled views on this stuff. Of course I have opinions but what are they worth? The important thing is the process we’ve begun.

@PresidioBitcoin @brian_trollz 9/ One takeaway from the event is that gigabrains are on the case. Technical solutions have trade offs and consensus is near impossible, but we have a formidable brain trust. Eg: @tdryja presented a brilliant “break glass” solution to short-range attacks. We’ve solved that.

@PresidioBitcoin @brian_trollz @tdryja 10/n Hot takes, FWIW. -q day is 5-10 years off -devs seem less concerned than wall st -dc won’t let china steal or devalue America’s bitcoin (h/t @jross7878 @matthew_pines) -ethical and political conflicts will drive a “confiscatory” fork unless we work really hard to avoid it

@PresidioBitcoin @brian_trollz @tdryja @jross7878 @matthew_pines 11/n those who think freezing quantum vulnerable coins is unethical may win the local battles but lose the global war, in that they will just end up using/working on a economically losing fork that doesn’t attract miners.

@PresidioBitcoin @brian_trollz @tdryja @jross7878 @matthew_pines 12/n there’s a window to bring bitcoin cypherpunk history, values, and expertise, to the effort to deal with this problem. I think that window closes before too long and dc-wall st develop their own fork if they don’t see their value protected.

@PresidioBitcoin @brian_trollz @tdryja @jross7878 @matthew_pines 13/n recent fights and knots movement is really unfortunate. Suspicions about financial motives corrupting devs is IMO ridiculous, and could make them conservative enough that BlackRock and the Trump Admin end up writing the economically dominant code.

@PresidioBitcoin @brian_trollz @tdryja @jross7878 @matthew_pines 14/ it’s going to be a wild ride. Governance is harder in proportion to the distribution of power. That makes this an enormous challenge but if it were easy we wouldn’t actually have a say in this. The difficulty is a by product of what we love and value about bitcoin.

@PresidioBitcoin @brian_trollz @tdryja @jross7878 @matthew_pines 15/n also… we’re going to make this thing like Y2K. We will.

@PresidioBitcoin @brian_trollz @tdryja @jross7878 @matthew_pines I can’t thank everyone I talked to or learned from because that’s almost the whole crew and many handles I don’t know and not sure they want to be mentioned but special shout out to @cryptoquick @lopp @isabelfoxenduke @apruden08 @intangiblecoins @mistercasey @moneyball and D++