Quantum Doom for Crypto? It’s all FUD and here’s why
Is Quantum Computing a big, fat, white elephant?
Hello fellow Steemians and Crypto Investors,
Today I want to share with you a very interesting article I found while reading about cryptography and its supposed arch-nemesis, Quantum Computing.
How many times have we seen the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) being spread on Social Media about how Quantum Computing would break Bitcoin’s encryption and render it, and most crypto currencies, obsolete? With a 400 billion market cap prize, the greatest ever bounty for a hacker ever, why hasn’t it happened? You might ask?
Well, here it is the answer: There are physical limitations that make Quantum Supremacy, the point at which Quantum Computers would beat Classical Computers, impossible to achieve. It’s all about the noise, a fundamental barrier which cannot be broken no matter how much money IBM, Google or Amazon throw at it to make super expensive chandeliers.
It’s all FUD guys, fake news designed to make you sell your coins on the cheap. HODL on and get your chandeliers at a thrift shop for 5 bucks ;)
The Argument Against Quantum Computers
The mathematician Gil Kalai believes that quantum computers can't possibly work, even in principle. Photo by Quantamagazine.org
Sixteen years ago, on a cold February day at Yale University, a poster caught Gil Kalai’s eye. It advertised a series of lectures by Michel Devoret, a well-known expert on experimental efforts in quantum computing. The talks promised to explore the question “Quantum Computer: Miracle or Mirage?” Kalai expected a vigorous discussion of the pros and cons of quantum computing. Instead, he recalled, “the skeptical direction was a little bit neglected.” He set out to explore that skeptical view himself.
Today, Kalai, a mathematician at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, is one of the most prominent of a loose group of mathematicians, physicists and computer scientists arguing that quantum computing, for all its theoretical promise, is something of a mirage. Some argue that there exist good theoretical reasons why the innards of a quantum computer — the “qubits” — will never be able to consistently perform the complex choreography asked of them. Others say that the machines will never work in practice, or that if they are built, their advantages won’t be great enough to make up for the expense.
Continue reading at Quantamagazine.org
IBM’s $15 million+ quantum chandelier is kind of a dead weight...
Even if Quantum Computing’s noise problem could ever be resolved. Bitcoin could just upgrade its encryption and make it Quantum proof. Here’s Andreas Antonopoulos to explain this:
The highly Technical paper on Why Quantum Computers Cannot Work (PDF)
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I think that Bruce Schneier is a competent authority on this subject (source: https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/1145/how-much-would-it-cost-in-u-s-dollars-to-brute-force-a-256-bit-key-in-a-year/1148):
One of the consequences of the second law of thermodynamics is that a certain amount of energy is necessary to represent information. To record a single bit by changing the state of a system requires an amount of energy no less than kTkT, where TT is the absolute temperature of the system and kk is the Boltzman constant. (Stick with me; the physics lesson is almost over.)
Given that k=1.38⋅10−16erg/∘Kelvink=1.38⋅10−16erg/∘Kelvin, and that the ambient temperature of the universe is 3.2∘K3.2∘K, an ideal computer running at 3.2∘K3.2∘K would consume 4.4⋅10−164.4⋅10−16 ergs every time it set or cleared a bit. To run a computer any colder than the cosmic background radiation would require extra energy to run a heat pump.
Now, the annual energy output of our sun is about 1.21⋅10411.21⋅1041 ergs. This is enough to power about 2.7⋅10562.7⋅1056 single bit changes on our ideal computer; enough state changes to put a 187-bit counter through all its values. If we built a Dyson sphere around the sun and captured all of its energy for 32 years, without any loss, we could power a computer to count up to 21922192. Of course, it wouldn’t have the energy left over to perform any useful calculations with this counter.
But that’s just one star, and a measly one at that. A typical supernova releases something like 10511051 ergs. (About a hundred times as much energy would be released in the form of neutrinos, but let them go for now.) If all of this energy could be channeled into a single orgy of computation, a 219-bit counter could be cycled through all of its states.
These numbers have nothing to do with the technology of the devices; they are the maximums that thermodynamics will allow. And they strongly imply that brute-force attacks against 256-bit keys will be infeasible until computers are built from something other than matter and occupy something other than space.
There are clear physical limitations that prevent quantum computers from breaking encryption. I think that given the above information, we can feel reasonable secure in cryptocurrencies with regard to encryption methods. With the sorry state of custody at exchanges, perhaps not so much.
I think it's FUD. Cryptos will survive!
If it's needed we will develop another security system resilient to quantum computing.
There are already quantum resistant coins in the market .crypto will survive all the FUD attack .
Are the completely resistant? I know that Xtrabytes has said it is fifty odd percent protected against Quantum attacks but I haven't saw any others on the market, or atleast I haven't stumbled onto them.
The question is, after reading this, does it really matter? I guess Quantum Computing has been overhyped and may never deliver
Very true, it's something said that doesn't matter for sure. Just wondered how many others have said they arent prone to attacks and if they aren't, how come? I know XBY has a different blockchain process PoSig, was wondering if it was that what made them protected.
You got a 1.96% upvote from @buildawhale courtesy of @cryptoeagle!
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MacFee said That the Internet of things could somehow be linked together and form a super computer. Hard to think my that my toaster in refrigerator and cell phone would team up against me and steal my crypto currency.
Thanks for the article @cryptoeagle.
I do believe we will eventually have quantum although agree it wont be the threat to crypto that people believe.
Even if it was the case, quantum is so far out, nothing for people to worry about at this moment...another 15 years at best.
Wonderful post man.Thanks for share man.I always upvote and follow you.
Resteem your post man.
Crypto will beat all these fud attacks, i'm 100 percent sure of it.
It may take them very long time to do so , i guess crypto tech will also evolve over the time . Cryptos are still new to the masses . They will develop new solution to every problem .
It's a amazing post man.I always comment and upvote you.Resteem done.