{"id":10260,"date":"2022-04-22T13:36:37","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T13:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nftandcrypto-news.com\/crypto\/quantum-computing-to-run-economic-models-on-crypto-adoption\/"},"modified":"2022-04-22T13:36:39","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T13:36:39","slug":"quantum-computing-to-run-economic-models-on-crypto-adoption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nftandcrypto-news.com\/crypto\/quantum-computing-to-run-economic-models-on-crypto-adoption\/","title":{"rendered":"Quantum computing to run economic models on crypto adoption"},"content":{"rendered":"
By many accounts, quantum computing (QC), which uses atomic \u201cspin\u201d instead of an electrical charge to represent its binary 1\u2019s and 0\u2019s, is evolving at an exponential rate. If QC is ever realized at scale, it could be a boon for human society, helping to improve crop yields, design better medicines and engineer safer airplanes, among other benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The crypto sector could profit too. Just last week, for instance, a Bank of Canada-commissioned project simulated cryptocurrency adoption among Canadian financial organizations using quantum computing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to test the power of quantum computing on a research case that is hard to solve using classical computing techniques,\u201d said Maryam Haghighi, director of data science at the Bank of Canada, in a press release.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, others worry that quantum computing, given its extraordinary \u201cbrute force\u201d power, could also crack blockchain\u2019s cryptographic structure, which has served Bitcoin (BTC) so well since its inception. Indeed, some say it is only a matter of time before quantum computers will be able to identify the enormous prime numbers that are key constituents of a BTC private key \u2014 assuming no countermeasures are developed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Along these lines, a recently published paper calculated just how much quantum power would be needed to duplicate a BTC private key, i.e., \u201cthe number of physical qubits required to break the 256-bit elliptic curve encryption of keys in the Bitcoin network,\u201d as explained by the paper\u2019s authors, who are associated with the University of Sussex.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To be sure, this will be no easy task. Bitcoin\u2019s algorithm that converts public keys to private keys is \u201cone way,\u201d which means that it is easy to generate a public key from a private key but virtually impossible to derive a private key from a public key using present-day computers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition, this would all have to be done in about 10 minutes, the average amount of time that a public key is exposed or vulnerable on the Bitcoin network. It also assumes that the public key is identical to the BTC address, as were most in Bitcoin\u2019s early days before it became common practice to use the KECCAK algorithm to \u201chash\u201d public keys to generate BTC addresses. It\u2019s estimated that about one-quarter of existing Bitcoin is using unhashed public keys.<\/p>\n
Given these constraints, the authors estimate that 1.9 billion qubits would be needed to penetrate a single Bitcoin private key within 10 minutes. Qubits, or quantum bits, are the analog to \u201cbits\u201d in classical computing. By comparison, most proto-QC computers today can summon up 50\u2013100 qubits, though IBM\u2019s state-of-the-art Eagle quantum processor can manage 127 qubits.\u00a0<\/p>\n