Lately, Venture Eleven (a quantum computing analysis group) introduced a 1 bitcoin reward for the primary workforce capable of full a problem to show breaking a ECC (elliptic curve cryptograph) key utilizing Shor’s algorithm on a quantum pc.
The deadline for this problem is April fifth, 2026, that means with a view to qualify for the prize a workforce should show breaking a key pair it should be achieved earlier than that deadline.
That is frankly a totally absurd and meaningless prize for plenty of causes, the primary of which is the deadline of just below a yr from at present. Even extremely optimistic projections concerning the progress of quantum computing put the timeline of virtually reaching such a objective at extra like 5-10 years. Anticipating a workable proof of idea demonstration that really breaks a keypair in a single yr is fairly laughable at face worth, even in the event you do view quantum computing as a fabric menace within the brief time period.
Subsequent is the issue of financial incentives. A single bitcoin is presently price roughly $80,000. That’s frankly not some huge cash within the grand scheme of issues. Particularly with regards to the applying of a innovative know-how like quantum computing that may carry out a whole class of computation exponentially quicker than a classical pc. Think about how rather more invaluable issues may very well be achieved with a working quantum pc.
You would snoop on web connections no matter TLS, breaking safe connections to banks, fairness brokerages, personal company networks not utilizing post-quantum cryptography. You would break each personal messenger utility on the planet, you could possibly decrypt any PGP encrypted message despatched over e-mail that you simply knew the general public key for. You would break your entire DNS system’s certificates authority hierarchy, permitting you to impersonate any server on the earth a person tries to connect 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 once they may benefit from all these different issues they’d be able to doing?
Okay, let’s sweep all of these prospects apart and fake your entire world magically migrates to post-quantum cryptography other than Bitcoin. It nonetheless is senseless to attempt to publicly declare this prize in case you have a useful quantum pc.
Let’s assume you could have a barely performant sufficient quantum pc, 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 assert a single bitcoin? You’d simply attempt to crack as a lot of these early coinbase rewards as doable earlier than individuals detected you.
Lastly, the timetable by itself is simply absurd. Quantum computer systems presently are usually 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 completely meaningless as a critical bounty to perform as a canary within the coalmine for us, irrespective of how involved or unconcerned you’re with the timeframes of quantum computer systems as a menace.
This bounty is a joke.
This text is a Take. Opinions expressed are completely the creator’s and don’t essentially mirror these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.
