Part 2/8:
Quantum computers pose a theoretical threat to Bitcoin primarily because of their ability to utilize Shor’s algorithm. This algorithm can potentially reverse-engineer a Bitcoin private key from its public key, effectively allowing someone to steal funds stored on that Bitcoin address. At the heart of this concern lies Bitcoin's reliance on public-private key cryptography, specifically the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA), which is foundational for Bitcoin transactions. Notably, the hashing algorithm SHA-256 used in Bitcoin mining and transaction verifications is not directly threatened by quantum computers in the same way.