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Bitcoin uses ECDSA to sign transactions, not RSA. In addition, selling information to a government on how to break either system would be more valuable than th

Bitcoin uses ECDSA to sign transactions, not RSA. In addition, selling information to a government on how to break either system would be more valuable than the amount of bitcoin you would able to sell before exchanges stop accepting deposits or the price crashes.

close04 1y ago
If a government knows you have such information they’ll take it not buy it. So your best bet would probably be to try to sell as many BTC as possible then give away the solution for free to your/a government.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- echelon 1y ago
  > If a government knows you have such information they’ll take it not buy it. They would probably kill you so you couldn't tell others. If a government can break crypto, that's worth more than money. Especially if it can remain peerless and undetected.
aleph_minus_one 1y ago
> In addition, selling information to a government on how to break either system would be more valuable Honest question because one can find such claims very often on forums like HN: Does there really exist a "feasible" way how some "lone hacker" could sell such information to some government and become insanely rich? I know that people who apparently have some deep knowledge about how exploit markets work claimed on HN that "if you have to ask how/where to solve your exploit (i.e. you have the respective contacts), you are very likely not able to". This latter observation seems a lot more plausible to me than the claim often found on HN that some "lone individual" would be able to monetize on it if he found a way how to break ECDSA or RSA by selling it to some government.
- dfedbeef 1y ago
  Yes. Start what's known as "a company".
cyberax 1y ago
A method to efficiently factor large numbers will also break the ECDSA.
- CamperBob2 1y ago
  No, ECDSA relies on the hardness of the discrete logarithm problem. Nothing to do with factoring, at least not in the classical sense. On a quantum computer, my understanding is that Shor's algorithm could potentially target both problems, though.
  - cyberax 1y ago
    Both systems are an example of a hidden Abelian subgroup problem. That is also why Shor's algorithm equally applies to both: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shor%27s_algorithm#Shor's_algorithm_for_discrete_logarithms https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shor%27s_algorithm#Shor's_al... So a hypothetical classic algorithm that breaks the RSA is also highly likely to break the ECDSA.

close04 1y ago

If a government knows you have such information they’ll take it not buy it. So your best bet would probably be to try to sell as many BTC as possible then give away the solution for free to your/a government.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
echelon 1y ago
> If a government knows you have such information they’ll take it not buy it. They would probably kill you so you couldn't tell others. If a government can break crypto, that's worth more than money. Especially if it can remain peerless and undetected.

aleph_minus_one 1y ago

> In addition, selling information to a government on how to break either system would be more valuable Honest question because one can find such claims very often on forums like HN: Does there really exist a "feasible" way how some "lone hacker" could sell such information to some government and become insanely rich? I know that people who apparently have some deep knowledge about how exploit markets work claimed on HN that "if you have to ask how/where to solve your exploit (i.e. you have the respective contacts), you are very likely not able to". This latter observation seems a lot more plausible to me than the claim often found on HN that some "lone individual" would be able to monetize on it if he found a way how to break ECDSA or RSA by selling it to some government.

dfedbeef 1y ago
Yes. Start what's known as "a company".

cyberax 1y ago

A method to efficiently factor large numbers will also break the ECDSA.

CamperBob2 1y ago
No, ECDSA relies on the hardness of the discrete logarithm problem. Nothing to do with factoring, at least not in the classical sense. On a quantum computer, my understanding is that Shor's algorithm could potentially target both problems, though.
- cyberax 1y ago
  Both systems are an example of a hidden Abelian subgroup problem. That is also why Shor's algorithm equally applies to both: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shor%27s_algorithm#Shor's_algorithm_for_discrete_logarithms https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shor%27s_algorithm#Shor's_al... So a hypothetical classic algorithm that breaks the RSA is also highly likely to break the ECDSA.