I was the CEO of a company called Aleo, where we built a privacy-focused blockchain, like ZCash but for smart contracts.

Shortly after I stepped down, the Google Willow announcement happened. I knew nothing about quantum at the time (other than that it was bad for cryptography). But having just gone through a very long and painful process of building and launching a novel cryptographic system that secures real value, I started wondering to myself, what if quantum does happen sooner than people think?

As I contemplated that question, I came to the conclusion that, paradoxically, the success over the last decade of Bitcoin and digital assets generally makes it harder to migrate because it becomes more entrenched. And as I learned more about PQ cryptography, I realized that there was going to be a painful tradeoff to make.

Therefore, if anything my motivation to start project eleven didn't really stem from bullishness about quantum necessarily, but bearishness on the ability of these decentralized systems to react quickly. Which is why I'm always banging on about how we need to prepare.