{"id":7413,"date":"2020-01-14T20:21:29","date_gmt":"2020-01-14T18:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.media\/?p=7413"},"modified":"2020-01-20T02:45:41","modified_gmt":"2020-01-20T00:45:41","slug":"the-threat-of-quantum-computers-will-bitcoin-get-hacked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/the-threat-of-quantum-computers-will-bitcoin-get-hacked\/","title":{"rendered":"The Threat of Quantum Computers: Will Bitcoin Get Hacked?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quantum computing has been one of the horror stories for bitcoin enthusiasts for a while now. Experts have repeatedly argued that this new tech would endanger the very existence of the network, which no one has managed to hack since its launch.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In 2019, NASA website published a document with insider information about Google’s success in the development of quantum computers and the achievement of “quantum supremacy”. The document was shortly removed from the site, but its <\/span>copy<\/span><\/a> is still available. The information was made public by the authoritative British media <\/span>The Financial Times<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the paper, Google\u2019s specialists were able to perform a computation in 200 seconds, whereas the same task would take about 10 000 years on the most powerful classic supercomputer available. The team used a processor called Sycamore initially comprising 54 qubits and later revamped to 53 qubits (quantum counterpart of bits of a classical computer).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis impressive acceleration compared with all the well-known classical algorithms gives an experimental implementation of quantum superiority at the computational level, and marks the onset of the long-awaited computer paradigm,\u201d<\/i><\/b> the document reads.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Accidentally or not, but this news almost coincided with a sudden short-term drop in the hash rate of the Bitcoin network by 30%, and a sharp decrease in bitcoin\u2019s price.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Bitcoin<\/p>\n

Social networks responded instantly, and some are still firmly convinced that the development of quantum computing means the guaranteed death of cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchains. Gathering the opinions of experts and analysts, ForkLog has tried out to sort out the issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

What Is a Quantum Computer?<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

A quantum computer is a computing device that uses the phenomena of quantum mechanics to transmit and process data. The idea of quantum computing was first proposed in the early 1980s, but a full-fledged universal quantum computer is still a hypothetical device.<\/span><\/p>\n

The main difference between a quantum computer and most modern devices is the representation of information. Traditional computers based on transistors and silicon chips use binary code to process information. Each bit can hold either zero or one.<\/span><\/p>\n

Quantum computing is based on the superposition principle. Instead of bits, it uses quantum bits, known as qubits. Similarly to traditional bits, qubits have two basic states\u2014zero and one. However, due to the superposition, a qubit can take the values obtained by combining zeros and ones, and be in all these states at the same time.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Dawn of a New Era?<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

The term “quantum superiority” was suggested back in 2012 by John Preskill, a Professor of theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology. Quantum superiority is to be achieved when quantum computers can do what classical computers can’t. In a recent article for <\/span>Quanta Magazine<\/span><\/a> he wrote that if the news of Google’s breakthrough is true, it is an outstanding achievement both in experimental physics that signifies outstanding development of hardware for quantum computing.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, according to Prof. Preskill, there is a catch.<\/span><\/p>\n

“The catch, as the Google team acknowledges, is that the problem their machine solved with astounding speed was carefully chosen just for the purpose of demonstrating the quantum computer\u2019s superiority. It is not otherwise a problem of much practical interest. In brief, the quantum computer executed a randomly chosen sequence of instructions, and then all the qubits were measured to produce an output bit string. This quantum computation has very little structure, which makes it harder for the classical computer to keep up, but also means that the answer is not very informative,”<\/i><\/b> John Preskill writes<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nevertheless, he believes that Google’s achievement is an important step in the development of applied quantum computers.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I thought it would be useful to have a word for the era that is now dawning, so I recently made one up: NISQ. Rhymes with the word \u2018risk.\u2019 This stands for \u201cnoisy intermediate-scale quantum.\u201d Here \u201cintermediate-scale\u201d refers to the size of quantum computers that are now becoming available: potentially large enough to perform certain highly specialized tasks beyond the reach of today\u2019s supercomputers [\u2026]<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The Google team has apparently demonstrated that it\u2019s now possible to build a quantum machine that\u2019s large enough and accurate enough to solve a problem we could not solve before, heralding the onset of the NISQ era,”<\/i><\/b> the scientist added.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Is the Threat to \u0421ryptocurrencies Real?<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

A significant part of people both in the crypto community and academia agree that such a threat, if any, is quite low, and the claims like \u201cquantum computing will make blockchain technology useless\u201d are exaggerated.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2018, Jeffrey Tucker, the editor of the American Institute of Economic Research online journal, <\/span>wrote<\/span><\/a> about this problem in his article. Quoting Dr. Gavin Brennen, a specialist in the field of quantum physics from the Australian Macquarie University, Tucker wrote that, given the level of quantum computing power available for now, negative scenarios are impossible. He notes that the existing quantum infrastructure has a relatively low quantum gate speed compared to that required to crack a cryptographic key.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Jeffrey Tucker, in the next 10 years, the gate speed may increase to 100 GHz. Yet, ASIC devices that are used to process PoW functions in the Bitcoin network will also evolve. According to Tucker, the development of a potentially dangerous technology will take about 10 years. He added that but by the time it\u2019s ready, it is likely to become out of date.<\/span><\/p>\n

Commenting Google\u2019s reported \u201cquantum superiority,\u201d a well-known cryptographer and Bitcoin developer Peter Todd has also <\/span>denied<\/span><\/a> a possible threat to the first cryptocurrency.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt means nothing because Google’s quantum breakthrough is for a primitive type of quantum computing that is nowhere near breaking cryptography. We still don’t even know if it’s possible to scale quantum computers; quite possible that adding qbits will have an exponential cost,” <\/i><\/strong>Todd wrote.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In a similar vein, an entrepreneur and crypto-evangelist Andreas Antonopoulos <\/span>noted:<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

“Quantum supremacy, what Google described, is demonstrating the practical applicability of quantum computers to certain classes of problems.”<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He added that Bitcoin developers will surely be able to update digital signature algorithms as quantum computing develops.<\/span><\/p>\n