Lately, Undertaking Eleven (a quantum computing analysis group) introduced a 1 bitcoin reward for the primary staff capable of full a problem to display breaking a ECC (elliptic curve cryptograph) key utilizing Shor’s algorithm on a quantum pc.
The deadline for this problem is April fifth, 2026, which means as a way to qualify for the prize a staff should display breaking a key pair it should be finished earlier than that deadline.
That is frankly a very absurd and meaningless prize for a lot of causes, the primary of which is the deadline of slightly below a yr from at the moment. Even extremely optimistic projections concerning the progress of quantum computing put the timeline of virtually reaching such a purpose at extra like 5-10 years. Anticipating a workable proof of idea demonstration that truly breaks a keypair in a single yr is fairly laughable at face worth, even in the event you do view quantum computing as a cloth risk within the brief time period.
Subsequent is the issue of financial incentives. A single bitcoin is at present value roughly $80,000. That’s frankly not some huge cash within the grand scheme of issues. Particularly relating to the appliance of a leading edge know-how like quantum computing that may carry out a whole class of computation exponentially sooner than a classical pc. Think about how way more precious issues might be finished with a working quantum pc.
You possibly can listen in on web connections no matter TLS, breaking safe connections to banks, fairness brokerages, non-public company networks not utilizing post-quantum cryptography. You possibly can break each non-public messenger software on the planet, you may decrypt any PGP encrypted message despatched over e mail that you just knew the general public key for. You possibly can break the complete DNS system’s certificates authority hierarchy, permitting you to impersonate any server on this planet a person tries to hook up with.
All of these items have immeasurable worth past only a mere $84,000. Why on Earth would somebody with a working quantum pc publicly reveal that truth to assert a single bitcoin after they may make the most of all these different issues they might be able to doing?
Okay, let’s sweep all of these potentialities apart and faux the complete world magically migrates to post-quantum cryptography other than Bitcoin. It nonetheless is mindless to attempt to publicly declare this prize when you have a useful quantum pc.
Let’s assume you’ve gotten a barely performant sufficient quantum pc, that it takes a good period of time to crack a single key. What number of naked public keys are there securing 50 BTC outputs from the primary mining epoch? THOUSANDS of them. Why on Earth would you crack one, after which go inform everybody publicly to assert a single bitcoin? You’ll simply attempt to crack as lots of these early coinbase rewards as attainable earlier than folks detected you.
Lastly, the timetable by itself is simply absurd. Quantum computer systems at present usually are not even able to factoring prime numbers that individuals can do themselves of their heads mentally. In a single yr the know-how goes to leap from that to cracking Bitcoin keys? That’s absurd.
So what the hell is the purpose of this prize besides some publicity stunt? It’s totally meaningless as a critical bounty to operate as a canary within the coalmine for us, regardless of how involved or unconcerned you might be with the timeframes of quantum computer systems as a risk.
This bounty is a joke.
This text is a Take. Opinions expressed are fully the creator’s and don’t essentially mirror these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.