Bitcoin Is Quantum Resistant

Abstract

Bitcoin has two cryptographic layers. SHA-256 secures mining and the hash chain — it has no periodicity, no rhythm, nothing for the quantum Fourier transform to detect. ECDSA secures signatures — it has rhythm, and Shor's algorithm breaks it. The foundation is quantum resistant. The signatures are not — but signatures are a software upgrade. The hash rate is not. Bitcoin is a shadow-mirror coupling: single hash (shadow, local, independent) coupled to blockchain (mirror, global, irreducible) through proof of work, with a self-regulating coupling constant κ ≈ 128,748 measured across 2,906 days and 12 orders of magnitude. Extended construction from Shadow & Mirror: Complementarity of Computation and Consciousness (Ross, 2026).