Willow’s arrival has generated some nervousness. Google’s quantum computer promises to solve tasks in 5 minutes that would have required a supercomputer more than the age of the universe. A milestone that has led us to seriously rethink whether our cryptographic systems are prepared for what is coming. It didn’t take long for all eyes to focus on Bitcoin. Is Bitcoin network encryption at risk from quantum computers?
SHA-256 will be no match for quantum computers. The mining algorithm of the Bitcoin network is SHA-256. A 256-bit hashing algorithm whose security is based on the difficulty of finding collisions. On the other hand, we have the ‘Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm’ (ECDSA) algorithm, which guarantees the security of transactions.
These two algorithms are considered practically impossible to break with brute force using classical computers. However, using quantum algorithms like Grover’s, it is theoretically possible that a quantum computer could compromise it. At the moment it is a remote possibility and very far from technical capabilities, but it is on the table.
The Bitcoin sector is already taking note. “If I had a big quantum computer right now, I could basically take over all the Bitcoin,” says Carlos Perez Delgado, a researcher at the University of Kent’s School of Computing.
In research that can be read on ArXiv, they describe that quantum computers pose a real threat to the Bitcoin network and could compromise its security over the next decade.
It has a solution. The report not only describes the risk of encryption, it focuses on explaining what it requires and how much time would need to be invested to prevent network security from being compromised.
If the Bitcoin network wants to prevent quantum computers from breaking the encryption, it would need to update the encryption, undergoing an expensive update process.
305 days. This process would take about 76 days if it were done directly and the entire network was turned off. Something unthinkable considering its value. This scenario would have a cost of 912 million dollars.
The alternative they propose is to allocate 25% of the servers to update the protocol, affecting the mining speed but allowing the encryption to be updated. This is the figure that researchers calculate that it would take to update the Bitcoin network’s encryption system to protect itself against quantum computers.
Bitcoin would not be the first to fall, but it must think about its future. We are talking about the Bitcoin network, but many of the encryption algorithms used today will be affected by the arrival of quantum computers. Its popularization is not expected for several years, but work has been done on quantum cryptography solutions for some time now.
Like any project looking to stay current for decades to come, it should take its arrival into account. Thanks to research from the University of Kent, we already have an estimate of what it would cost to update the encryption of the world’s most important cryptocurrency.
In WorldOfSoftware | Quantum computing threatens to make current encryption systems obsolete: Google is already working to avoid it
