How do we protect Bitcoin from quantum computers? Not kidding

Recently, Project 11 (a quantum computing research team) announced a reward for 1 Bitcoin, which was able to complete the challenge to demonstrate the destruction of ECC (elliptic curve cryptometer) keys through the shor algorithm on a quantum computer.

The deadline for this challenge is April 5, 2026, which means that in order to qualify for the prize, a team must prove to break a key pair that must be completed by that deadline.

Frankly, this is a totally ridiculous and meaningless prize for many reasons, the first one being a deadline of less than a year from today. Even highly optimistic predictions about advances in quantum computing actually achieved such a timeline in a timetable of 5-10 years. Even if you do see quantum computing as a material threat in the short term, expect a viable proof of concept that actually breaks the concept of key presses over the course of the year.

Next is the factors of economic incentives. One Bitcoin is currently worth about $80,000. Frankly, this is not much in the grand scheme of things. Especially when it comes to cutting-edge technologies such as quantum computing, this technology can perform the entire category of computing faster than classical computers. Imagine how much valuable things an effective quantum computer can do.

Regardless of TLS, you can eavesdrop on your Internet connection, breaking secure connections with banks, stockbrokers, private corporate networks that don’t use the Quantum Cryptography. You can break every private Messenger app on Earth and can decrypt any PGP encrypted messages sent by emails that you know the public key. You can break the certificate authorization hierarchy of the entire DNS system, allowing you to imitate any server that users try to connect to the world.

All of these things have immeasurable value, not just $84,000. Why can anyone on Earth publicly reveal this fact that requires a single bitcoin, and they can take advantage of all these other things that can do?

Well, let’s sweep all these possibilities and pretend the world migrates magically to quantum postcryptography, except for Bitcoin. it still If you have a functional quantum computer, trying to publicly claim that the award makes no sense.

Assuming you have hardly enough quantum computers, it takes a lot of time to break a single bond. How many naked public keys can get 50 BTC outputs from the first mining period? Thousands of them. Why break one on Earth and then tell everyone publicly A Bitcoin? You’ll just try to crack as many of those early Coinbase rewards as possible before people find you.

Finally, the timeline itself is just absurd. Quantum computers currently do not even have the ability to consider how many people can mentally do their own mass numbers. In the year, will the technology jump from the technology to the broken bitcoin key? That’s ridiculous.

So, apart from some promotional stunts, what is the focus of this award? For us, as canaries in coal mines, no matter how much you care or don’t care about the time range of quantum computers, it’s a serious bounty, and it’s a very meaningful bounty.

This bounty is a joke.

This article is a point of view. The views expressed are entirely the author’s point of view and do not necessarily reflect the views of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.