Cryptocurrencies have the potential to transform finances, eliminate middlemen, and provide accounts to millions of unbanked people around the world. Quantum computers could change the way drugs and materials are developed by bringing their exceptional capabilities to the process.
Here’s the catch: the blockchain accounting technology that powers cryptocurrencies could be vulnerable to elaborate attacks and fake transactions if quantum computing matures faster than future-proof digital money efforts.
Cryptocurrencies are protected by a technology called public key cryptography. The system is ubiquitous, protects your online purchases and encrypts your communications for anyone other than the intended recipient. The technology works by combining a public key that is visible to everyone with a private key. Key that is only for your eyes.
If current progress continues, quantum computers will be able to crack public key cryptography, potentially posing a serious threat to the crypto world, where some coins are worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Owners of cryptocurrencies, NFTs, or other similar digital assets.
Once quantum computing becomes powerful enough, virtually all guarantees of security will disappear, ”Dawn Song, cybersecurity entrepreneur and professor at the University of California at Berkeley, told the Collective [i] Forecast forum in October. When public key cryptography is breached, users could lose their funds and the whole system would crash. ”
Quantum computers gain their power by manipulating data stored on qubits, elements such as charged atoms that are subject to a particular physics governing the ultra-small. To crack cryptography, quantum computers will have to exploit thousands of qubits, far more than the tens in today’s machines, machines will also need persistent qubits capable of performing calculations much longer than fleeting moments possible at the moment.
But quantum computer manufacturers are working hard to address these shortcomings. They are using more and more qubits in machines and are working on methods of quantum error correction so that qubits can perform longer and more complex calculations.
“We hope that within a few years computers will be available that are powerful enough” to open blockchains, said Nir Minerbi, CEO of the quantum software manufacturer Classiq Technologies.
The good news for fans of cryptocurrencies is that the problem of quantum computing can be solved by using the same post-quantum cryptography technology that the computer industry has already begun to develop. the problem is that it has been a painstaking process for several years to find quantum proof cryptography algorithms with the participation of researchers from all over the world.
In fact, several cryptocurrency and blockchain efforts are actively working on quantum-resistant software:
- The Ethereum project, which created the largest cryptocurrency in terms of total value after Bitcoin, has started to follow a postquantum course. Justin Drake, an Ethereum Foundation researcher, presented detailed ideas on quantum resistance in Ethereum 3.0 at the StarkWare conference in 2019. However, there is still a long way to go: the current transition from Ethereum to Ethereum 2.0 will take years.
- Some people are building new cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies designed for the quantum computing era, such as Quantum Resistant Ledger and Bitcoin Post Quantum, which despite the name are not related to the original Bitcoin cryptocurrency. These efforts employ post-quantum algorithms to protect against future quantum cracking.
- Cambridge Quantum Computing, a startup that is merging with quantum computer maker Honeywell, is working on quantum security technology that “can be applied to any blockchain network”. Its goal is to protect both communication between the computers that store blockchain data and the signatures used to encrypt and sign blockchain data.
- The Hyperledger Foundation, an open source software project focused on the commercial exploitation of blockchain, has started work on post-quantum cryptography as part of its Ursa activities, says Daniela Barbosa, CEO of Hyperledger. Ursa is a library of cryptography software that Hyperledger projects. Can use.
One problem with the post-quantum crypto-algorithms we have considered so far, however, is that they generally require longer numeric encryption keys and longer processing times, says Peter Chapman, CEO of quantum computer maker IonQ, which could significantly increase the processing power required for internal blockchains.
The problem with decentralized governance
Many cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, are intentionally decentralized and are actually overseen by anyone participating in each cryptocurrency network. In order to update the inner workings of a cryptocurrency, people who try to update a cryptocurrency have to convince more than half of the participants to “fork” the cryptocurrency into a new version.
The real quantum proof of cryptocurrencies will be governance structures, not technologies, says Hunter Jensen, chief technology officer at Permission.io, a company that uses cryptocurrencies for a targeted advertising system.
Such governance could reward cryptocurrencies that have stronger central powers, such as Dash with its masternodes or even “govcoins” issued by central banks, which in principle move more quickly to introducing post-quantum protection. But it poses a mystery to the crypto community, which often rejects the notion of authority.
“It will be the truly decentralized currencies that will suffer when their communities are too slow and disorganized to trade,” said Andersen Cheng, CEO of Post Quantum, a London-based company that sells post-quantum crypto technology.
Other quantum problems with cryptocurrencies
Another risk is that blockchains are based on a fingerprint technology called hashing, which could disrupt quantum computers, although more modest technology updates can likely fix it.
cryptocurrency wallets that people use to track their digital assets could also be vulnerable to quantum computing. These wallets store private keys that people need to access their assets registered in the blockchain. A successful attack could empty a wallet.
How can you force users to update keys? That answer is not that simple and is probably the most dangerous part, “said Joe Genereux, senior crypto and security engineer at browser maker Brave, who uses its own cryptocurrency Basic Attention Token (BAT) for an advertising system that pays users for cryptocurrencies that are initially one Having better governance or post-quantum designs can better solve this problem. ”
Ultimately, however, the organic and self-directed evolution of cryptocurrency suggests that people will upgrade digital asset technology to meet the challenges of quantum computing, says David Sacco, who teaches at the University of New Haven.
“The beauty of the ecosystem,” he said, “is that anyone can do it if they understand the technology.”
