Quantum computing will fortify Bitcoin signatures: Adam Back

As an analyst with extensive experience in the tech and crypto industries, I find myself intrigued by the ongoing debate surrounding quantum computing and its potential impact on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). While I acknowledge the concerns about quantum computing potentially breaking traditional cryptographic algorithms, I am optimistic about the long-term benefits it could bring to the BTC network.

Quantum leaps in computer technology could fortify the Bitcoin system in future years, despite ongoing debates about its possible threats to secure encryption methods.

Experts in the field have earlier expressed worries that quantum computers could potentially disrupt current encryption methods due to their unprecedented speed in executing computational tasks, a result of breakthroughs in quantum physics.

Despite some reservations, quantum computing might strengthen the Bitcoin network, suggests Adam Back, co-founder and CEO of Blockstream, a pioneer in Hashcash and a renowned cryptographer within the industry.

As a crypto investor, I’ve come to understand that we’re still looking at least several decades before post-quantum (PQ) technology becomes a reality. Given this timeline, I believe that hash-based PQ schemes may not prove viable in the foreseeable future.

“PQ signature research will eventually produce conservative well-reviewed, more compact signatures, and Bitcoin can add those schemes as another option.”

In simple terms, Bitcoin signatures serve as a safety measure within the Bitcoin network, ensuring that transactions cannot be manipulated by unauthorized parties. During a transaction, private keys are employed to authenticate the transfer, essentially proving that the Bitcoins belong to the wallet’s owner.

Over the last fortnight, my focus as a crypto investor has been drawn to Bitcoin and its network’s future security, given the heightened interest from fellow investors. This renewed attention is primarily due to Bitcoin breaking through the $100,000 barrier for the first time on December 6th – an unprecedented milestone in its history.

Is Google’s new quantum computing chip a threat to crypto encryption?

Concerns about quantum computing’s potential to disrupt cryptocurrency transactions have been reignited by Google’s latest quantum computing chip. This chip reportedly solves a computational problem in under five minutes, a task that would take even the most advanced supercomputers approximately 10 septillion years to complete.

According to Hartmut Neven, the head of Google’s Quantum AI team, the latest chip, called Willow, has the ability to rapidly and exponentially reduce errors and perform specific computations at an astonishing speed, as stated in a blog post on December 9th.

Neven’s statement supports the belief that quantum computations happen across multiple parallel realities, aligning with the theory of living in a multiverse – an idea initially proposed by David Deutsch.

In a December 9 statement on X, tech entrepreneur and ex-senior product manager at Google, Kevin Rose, mentioned that Willow was not yet posing a significant challenge to the crypto market.

As Rose explains, it’s believed that breaking Bitcoin’s encryption would necessitate a quantum computer boasting around 13 million qubits to accomplish the task in just 24 hours.

As a crypto investor, I’d like to highlight that while the Willow chip by Google is indeed a remarkable leap, it boasts an impressive count of 105 qubits. This means we’re getting closer to quantum computing capabilities, but we’re still not quite there yet.

Vitalik Buterin, one of Ethereum‘s co-founders, is also readying Ethereum for a time beyond quantum computers. He has already suggested a straightforward solution to minimize the threat of quantum computing on Ethereum – a hard fork – which could potentially resolve this issue.

2024-12-22 13:40

Is Google’s new quantum computing chip a threat to crypto encryption?

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