(DriveInsider) the imminent collapse of current cybersecurity technology is a small handful of years away. The clock is ticking down, and the attack, although expected, will be lethal unless a solution can be adopted against an impending quantum computer attack. This author believes that Bitcoin, or one of the other cyber currencies, will probably be the first to fall from an attack by a quantum criminal enterprise.
Michele Mosca, co-founder University of Waterloo’s Institute for Quantum Computing, warned that the tools used to create public-key encryption could be broken by 2026. He placed the odds of cracking the public-key cryptography by 2026 at 1 in 7. The odds increase to 50-50 by 2031.
Bitcoin has earned the dubious title of “Canary in the Coal Mine” because numerous financial analysts expect that the first target of a quantum computer criminal will be mining the entire lode of Bitcoin; it’s a big, juicy target. The present market capitalization of the world’s cryptocurrencies sits at slightly north of $250 billion, according to the website CoinMarketCap. Previously, cryptocurrencies hit a cap of $800 billion in early 2018 before falling off the cliff. That’s a lot of coin sitting in the field for easy picking, and the quantum computer is the internet cotton gin that can do the picking.
What cryptocurrency researchers emphasize over and over again is for cryptocurrency traders to be ready and watch the tracks. Quantum computer attacks are chugging down that track, but nobody knows precisely when they will arrive. Bitcoin magazine suggests that bitcoin holders move their coins between an address generated by the Lamport scheme and an unused Bitcoin address. A Promising project is Quantum Resistant Ledger (QRL), who position themselves as being secure “not just against today’s computers, but tomorrow’s quantum-computers as well.”
The Impending Quantum Attack on Bitcoin
