Not too long ago, Undertaking Eleven (a quantum computing analysis group) introduced a 1 bitcoin reward for the primary group capable of full a problem to exhibit breaking a ECC (elliptic curve cryptograph) key utilizing Shor’s algorithm on a quantum laptop.
The deadline for this problem is April fifth, 2026, which means as a way to qualify for the prize a group should exhibit breaking a key pair it have to be accomplished earlier than that deadline.
That is frankly a very absurd and meaningless prize for quite a lot of causes, the primary of which is the deadline of just below a 12 months from right now. Even extremely optimistic projections concerning the progress of quantum computing put the timeline of virtually attaining such a purpose at extra like 5-10 years. Anticipating a workable proof of idea demonstration that truly breaks a keypair in a single 12 months is fairly laughable at face worth, even if you happen to 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 in terms of the applying of a leading edge expertise like quantum computing that may carry out a complete class of computation exponentially quicker than a classical laptop. Think about how far more helpful issues may very well be accomplished with a working quantum laptop.
You may snoop on web connections no matter TLS, breaking safe connections to banks, fairness brokerages, non-public company networks not utilizing post-quantum cryptography. You may break each non-public messenger software on the planet, you may decrypt any PGP encrypted message despatched over e mail that you simply knew the general public key for. You may break your entire DNS system’s certificates authority hierarchy, permitting you to impersonate any server on the earth a consumer tries to hook up with.
All of this stuff have immeasurable worth past only a mere $84,000. Why on Earth would somebody with a working quantum laptop publicly reveal that truth to say a single bitcoin once they may make the most of all these different issues they might be able to doing?
Okay, let’s sweep all of these prospects apart and fake your entire world magically migrates to post-quantum cryptography except for Bitcoin. It nonetheless is senseless to attempt to publicly declare this prize if in case you have a practical quantum laptop.
Let’s assume you’ve gotten a barely performant sufficient quantum laptop, that it takes an honest 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 say a single bitcoin? You’d simply attempt to crack as a lot of these early coinbase rewards as potential earlier than individuals detected you.
Lastly, the timetable by itself is simply absurd. Quantum computer systems at present are usually not even able to factoring prime numbers that folks can do themselves of their heads mentally. In a single 12 months the expertise 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 completely meaningless as a critical bounty to perform 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 solely the writer’s and don’t essentially replicate these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.
