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The world’s wealthiest person, Elon Musk, is known for his deep interest in Bitcoin (BTC) and rarely holds back from sharing his views whenever the topic comes up. So when Google issued a new warning about the potential threat quantum computing poses to Bitcoin, he quickly responded with his thoughts.
Google warns of quantum threats to Bitcoin
Google recently issued two warnings in a span of a few days.
First, quantum computers will be able to crack cryptography encrypting cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) by 2029. In fact, hackers might try stealing encrypted financial details right now and wait until 2029 for quantum computers to become powerful enough to decrypt those details.
Google recommended transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to address the threat.
Second, a quantum system could crack a real-time Bitcoin transaction in about nine minutes. Here is how it could happen.
When a Bitcoin transaction is executed, the public key is revealed for a brief period. A quantum computer powerful enough can use the public key to find out the private key and steal the crypto assets.
It takes approximately 10 minutes for a Bitcoin transaction to confirm; the probability of success is only slightly less than 41%, the paper estimated.
The paper also revealed that it could take fewer than 500,000 qubits—far less than millions of qubits cited earlier—to crack Bitcoin's cryptography. It's a 20-fold reduction in the number of qubits needed to crack the encryption.
Elon Musk on 'plus side' of quantum threat
Following the discussion surrounding Google's quantum warnings, Elon Musk said there is a "plus side" to it.
"On the plus side, if you forgot the password to your wallet, it will be accessible in the future," he shared with his over 237 million followers on X.
What it implies is that quantum computing could become so powerful in the future that it could even retrieve forgotten passwords and make crypto wallets more vulnerable to quantum attacks.
Bitcoin was trading at $66,644.42 at press time, down 24% this year.
This article has been published in thestreet.com via Yahoo News.
Elon Musk reveals 'plus side' of quantum computing breaking Bitcoin
The world’s wealthiest person, Elon Musk, is known for his deep interest in Bitcoin (BTC) and rarely holds back from sharing his views whenever the topic comes up. So when Google issued a new warning about the potential threat quantum computing poses to Bitcoin, he quickly responded with his ...
finance.yahoo.com
