G7 Tells Crypto Industry to Start Moving to Quantum-Safe Encryption Now The Group of Seven's cybersecurity working group issued a blunt warning on September 3, 2026: organizations around the world should begin migrating to post-quantum cryptography immediately, before quantum computers become capable of dismantling the encryption that currently secures digital infrastructure. The advisory carries particular urgency for the cryptocurrency industry, where public-key cryptography underpins everything from wallet security to transaction authorization, and where upgrading core protocols requires coordination across developers, miners, exchanges and millions of users. The working group's report, titled "Preparing for the Post-Quantum Era: A Call to Action," frames quantum computing as a security and economic threat affecting public and private organizations alike, not only operators of critical infrastructure. The document never mentions cryptocurrency by name. Yet the connection is unavoidable: blockchain networks depend on the same class of cryptographic algorithms that quantum machines are expected to break, and the industry's upgrade path is complicated by governance debates, technical constraints and the permanent visibility of on-chain data. "Although the exact timeline is uncertain, several recent advances suggest an anticipation of the development of quantum computers able to break widely used public-key cryptography mechanisms and threaten the security of digital infrastructures," the group wrote. One of the most pressing concerns identified in the report is the "harvest now, decrypt later" strategy. Attackers could collect encrypted data today and store it until quantum capabilities mature sufficiently to unlock it. For blockchains, this vulnerability is amplified because public keys and transaction histories remain visible forever, potentially exposing older wallets to retrospective attacks years after funds were moved. Europe Moves First With Binding Deadlines While the G7 statement is advisory, the European Union has already converted the quantum threat into regulatory requirements. The EU adopted its Coordinated Implementation Roadmap for the Transition