Lawrence White, an economics professor at George Mason University, spoke about potential security threats to Bitcoin and doubted that it could become an effective means of payment.

In a recent interview, Professor Lawrence White said that attacks using quantum computers will not affect the security of Bitcoin. Instead of quantum computing, the scientist sees another problem – changing the reward model for miners in the future.

“People are worried about miners colluding to attack Bitcoin, but that’s not in their interest. Bitcoin has already been proven to be hack-proof, but there are people who are worried that the network’s reward model will change,” White said.

With Bitcoin’s limited supply of 21 million coins, in 100 years Bitcoin will no longer be mined. Therefore, the main source of income for miners will be transaction fees. This will not be enough to recruit the required number of miners who can ensure the security of the system, the professor fears. White also doubted that Bitcoin would be used as widely as regular money.

“People believe that Bitcoin will become the world’s money, but I say that its chances are minimal. Perhaps this could happen with cryptocurrencies with a different design or with stablecoins,” White suggested.

However, the CEO of payment service Strike, Jack Mallers, has a completely different point of view. He called Bitcoin the most effective payment system. American economist Eugene Fama also believes that Bitcoin has value as a means of payment.

Earlier, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin presented a way to protect accounts from the threats of quantum computers. He believes it is important to strengthen user security in the context of the rapid development of quantum computing.