Will Quantum Computers Break Bitcoin and the Internet? Here’s the Outlook From Quantum Physicist Anastasia Marchenkova

A Quantum physicist is revealing that while quantum computers pose no risk to Bitcoin mining, they threaten the algorithms that keep Bitcoin and the internet secure.

In a recent video, Anastasia Marchenkova argues Bitcoin has a built-in design that protects it against entities using quantum algorithms to mine BTC at a rapid rate.

“Let’s say one day we actually did discover a quantum algorithm that could solve this faster. Bitcoin is designed to adjust the difficulty if we mine blocks too fast. So even if we found this quantum algorithm, the difficulty would just get harder.”

However, the quantum physicist warns that quantum computing poses a serious risk to cryptographic algorithms which keep cryptocurrencies and the internet at large secure.

“There’s two common cryptosystems – RSA and elliptic curve encryption and these are affected by quantum computers. When you’re online, information that you send is encrypted, often with these two. Both of these are vulnerable to attacks by quantum computers which means a large enough quantum computer will be a problem for anyone online…

There actually is a quantum algorithm to break RSA and elliptic curve encryption. Bitcoin does use elliptic curve encryption (ECC) to generate the public key, which is created from the private key which authorizes transactions…

That means that someone with a large enough and coherent enough quantum computer, with coherence meaning the length of time the quantum information can be stored, can actually get your private key from your public key and that’s a very serious problem… That private key can then be used to authorize transactions that the owner doesn’t want to have happen. So as quantum computers become better and better, the security of RSA and elliptic curve is no longer effective.”

Crypto sleuths continue to track the advancement of quantum machines. They have the capability to crack complex mathematical problems using quantum bits, or quibits, which can maintain a “superimposition” by being in two states at the same time.

While the future of cryptocurrencies may be threatened, Marchenkova says digital assets can adopt developments that can effectively resist quantum-based attacks.

“So we’ll need to pick an algorithm that can actually stand up to quantum attacks. We call this post-quantum cryptography which are classical algorithms not based on quantum principles that can stand up to quantum computing attacks. One of the current leading candidates is lattice-based cryptography…

Another approach is using asymmetric cryptography like AES (advanced encryption standard) which is weakened by quantum computers but not broken in such a manner like RSA and elliptic curve…

There are also other coins already using hash-based cryptography. And so far, like I mentioned, hash-based cryptosystems actually resist quantum computing attacks. We don’t know if that’s going to hold true forever but so far that seems to be the case.”

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