Hey everybody, welcome to a new episode on
BLOCKCHAIN CENTRAL!
I am sure you have heard of quantum computers
before.
Quantum computers will be significantly faster
than any other conventional computers that
we’ve seen so far.
Quantum computers work at the particle level,
exploiting complex quantum phenomena to drastically
boost performance.
Well so far that sounds great, but what does
that have to do with blockchain technology?
---INTRO---
Well, blockchains are not infinitely secure.
They are secure from the point of view of
currently available computers.
But theoretically, someone could break their
encryption.
After all, it is just a very, very hard math
problem, with too many calculations for normal
computers to break.
With significantly more computing power, we
could recalculate the keys and crack the encryption.
Lucky for us, machines capable of that are
not yet commercially available.
First, let’s talk about quantum computers.
They already exist.
IBM, Microsoft, and Google all have one.
Most of these are still very small and not
used primarily as development models.
We measure their processing power in qubits.
Qubits are difficult to translate into normal
bits.
That is because for some operations they are
as fast as normal bits and for other types
of computations, they are orders of magnitude
faster.
The fastest quantum computer today has 72
qubits.1 and was built by Google.
It is currently undergoing tests and the engineers
claim that it will be fast enough to demonstrate
the quantum.
That would be the point at which a quantum
computer
becomes faster than any traditional supercomputer.
From a technical perspective, they are a revolution.
Normal computers use bits.
Bits can be either 1 or 0.
Qubits can also be anything in between, as
they can be both at the same time but with
different likelihoods.
This property is called superposition.
It means that Qubits can store much more information
at once.
As a result, quantum computers can compute
certain things much faster.
What’s the biggest obstacle right now?
There are many challenges, one of which is
cooling.
And by cooling, I mean freezing.
They need to be close to absolute 0, which
is -273 degrees Celsius.
This is because there are a lot more quantum
states than just 0 and 1.
To accurately measure what state we’re dealing
with, we need to take out variations.
And that is easier at lower temperatures,
because electrons move slower.
This requirement makes them very expensive
and cumbersome.
But these hurdles will be overcome.
As soon as quantum computers become popular,
we might have a problem.
Private and public keys are used to secure
blockchains.
Three mathematical problems are used for their
encryption, and all three of them share one
crucial property.
By knowing their input (encryption key), it
is easy to create their output.
But with only their output available, it is
very hard to guess their input.
At least for now.
Quantum computers will have enough processing
power to reverse those calculations in a much
shorter time than conventional computers.
Quantum computers could crack regular encryption
standards even by brute force, running through
each mathematical combination one-by-one.
So, what do we do?
Well, there are multiple suggestions.
One is to add a safe quantum layer to current
blockchains.
A safe quantum layer means that we can keep
using blockchain encryptions as we do now.
Another suggestion would be to use quantum
blockchains.
That is a blockchain that is built specifically
for quantum computers.
However, then all nodes of the blockchain
would have to be used by quantum computers as well.
That would require a quantum network to connect
these nodes.
It would be a robust approach but might take
a while to realize.
I have one thought to calm you down: the good
news is, quantum computers would affect all
encryption layers on the internet.
Emails, chats, websites, hospitals, banks,
and servers are all secured in similar ways.
It is fair to say, that all of mankind is
therefore in the same boat.
That is why hopes are high, that we will develop
quantum safe encryption before quantum computers
become a real threat.
The idea is always to make encryptions so
hard to crack, that it would be too costly to try so.
Governmental organizations are already paying
attention.
They started investing in developing quantum-proof
security.
One such player is, for example, the European
Union.
On the bright side, there are already some
solutions.
NEO and IOTA have already announced to be
developing quantum-safe encryption.
Cardano is soon to follow suit.
Many crypto projects have quantum security
on their roadmap, but it will take a few years
until this is relevant.
That is why most blockchain projects still
have it quite low on their priority list.
So, what have we learned today?
Quantum computers are interesting technological
advancements.
They will arrive sooner, or later and current
cybersecurity systems will not stand a chance
against them.
This does also apply to the blockchain but
luckily, we will have stable solutions by then.
Before you go, please note that this content
neither represents financial, legal, or tax
advice, nor is it supposed to be understood
or interpreted as solicitation to buy or sell
any securities, coins or tokens.
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Happy investing!
