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If quantum computing improves as it had been, how does this affect Bitcoin and ethereum as we now know it? Could the blockchain be compromised by a malicious a
by eric-hu 9y ago
If quantum computing improves as it had been, how does this affect Bitcoin and ethereum as we now know it? Could the blockchain be compromised by a malicious actor who has much less than the majority?
- bdamm 9y agoMy prediction: at some point Bitcoin will go through an upgrade process to transfer user wallets to a key pair based on a quantum resistant public key algorithm. Users will be given a time frame to transmit their coins to the new wallets, and after that time is expired, EC-based wallets will not be considered valid transaction sources any longer. Classic cash conversion in the digital age.
- quickthrower2 9y agoThat would be a fork, which is interesting. The recent BTC fork shows that this can be politically successful so there is hope.
- IIAOPSW 9y agoI wrote an article about this pending publication so I can't link you just yet. Bitcoin is mostly safe. Transactions in the pending pool can be compromised but quantum computers would need to perform logical operations at around 660 MHz. Confirmed transactions and unspent transactions are completely safe. The earliest quantum computers won't be fast enough to perform this attack. The problem is easily remedied by hard forking to replace ECDSA with a different public key system. There will be a lot of advanced warning. I'm not sure on Ether.