If quantum computers advance to a certain level and Satoshi Nakamoto’s private key is cracked, will the Bitcoin economy collapse?
Nothing will happen to Bitcoin Cash. BCH gets spent all the time. It is a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. The network will migrate to quantum-resistant addresses long before quantum cracking becomes an actual threat. As for Satoshi coins, if he is alive, they are his to spend however he likes. If a quantum computer cracks them first, they simply become a massive bounty that re-enters the circulating economy. For BTC, the protocol itself won’t collapse. However, the resulting panic might drive BTC maximalists to take stupid actions that could lead to a collapse.
3 Likes
The first scientist to invent high-performance quantum computers will steal all old addresses of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash, including satoshi Nakamoto’s 1.1 million Bitcoin, becoming the largest Bitcoin holder and influencing its price
Yeah, but those aren’t your coins to dictate what happens to them. Not your keys, not your coins. It’s as simple as that. If a quantum computer dumps Satoshi-era coins for fiat, it just lets stagnant coins enter the circulating supply. The market absorbs it, and the price will recover. What’s the big deal?
By the time quantum computing is an actual threat, the majority of active BCH users will have migrated to quantum-resistant addresses. Personal responsibility applies here just like with any self-encrypted data on your computer. Everyone is responsible for guarding their own keys and moving their coins to a quantum-resistant address. There is plenty of time, and we already have quantumroot on the horizon.
4 Likes
the jury is still out on that, in contrary to what big companies like google and others want you to believe. We are in the 5th decade since the idea was born and we still have not seen any results that are better than just a plain old computer. Internalize that for a moment, multiple generations working on designing something that still doesn’t actually fulfil it’s main and simplest goal. A human generation is shorter than that!
Google has published papers but they are not impartial, now are they? People are throwing money at them to make this work, and have for years, so what is their incentive to say “oh, it definitely is going to happen soon!”.
And when you reply to gretha thunberg 5 years after she predicted the world would end and point out that it, in actual fact didn’t, then they go silent.
Quantum computing market was estimated to be 3 and a half billion dollars in 2025. Notice that they have not actually shipped anything that is better than what normal computing can do. So that 3½ billion usd is pretty impressive. Like investing billions in a crypto that in actual fact didn’t manage to make a single proper transaction yet. It’s nuts.
And the papers should be viewed in that light. Not taken for gospel.
No. BCH already survived a much bigger dump than 1.7M coins (that many coins are sitting ducks on P2PK addresses). Maybe BTC people are panicking because those coins activating would ruin their number-go-up narrative, but BCH doesn’t have that problem. Those coins are fair game for whomever can move them. It may be QCs or it may be Satoshi himself, how would we know? Maybe Satoshi is waiting for QCs to provide cover for him claiming his treasure. Are BTC people really considering rugging Satoshi with some stupid communist seizure soft fork?
Are BTC small block people preparing the narrative for communist seizure of assets, “for the greater good?”
Because without fees their security budget will only keep halving, so maybe they’ll try to sell this as funding security budget? Because they have small blocks, there’s no hope of fees ever filling that gap. BCH doesn’t have that problem.
5 Likes
As long as there are enough quantum numbers, the private key can be instantly cracked, which is determined by the laws of physics. However, there is still a difference of at least three orders of magnitude at present, but it will happen sooner or later, won’t it
Even with QCs, cracking a key is neither instant nor free. It will take a measurable amount of time, and it will have measurable costs, which may be too high to get a ROI from most UTXOs.
With a commit-delay-reveal scheme, we could help even SN migrate if he’d generate and post a commitment before QCs arrive, and he could keep it a secret until q-day. Having an old commitment would let him sweep his coins first and QCs won’t stand a chance.
More details: Post Quantum Cryptography - #47 by bitcoincashautist
2 Likes