How Do We Protect Bitcoin From Quantum Computers? Not With A Joke Trending Global News

Recently, Project XI (A Quantum Computing Research Group) announced a 1 bitcoin prize for the first team, which is capable of completing a challenge to break the ECC (elliptical curve cryptograph) key using a noise algorithm on a quantum computer.

The deadline for this challenge is April 5, 2026, which means that a team must demonstrate a major pair that must be performed before the time limit to qualify for the award.

It is clearly a completely absurd and meaningless award for several reasons, the first of which is the deadline within just one year from today. Even highly optimistic projections about the progress of quantum computing, like 5–10 years, practically kept the timeline to achieve such a target. Expecting a practical evidence of concept performance that actually breaks a keypaire in a year, has a lot of laughter at the inscribed value, even if you see quantum computing as a physical threat in the short term.

The next is the factor of economic encouragement. A single bitcoin is currently about $ 80,000. This is clearly not much money in the grand plan of things. Especially when it comes to the application of state -of -the -art technology such as quantum computing that can demonstrate an entire orbit of rapid calculation compared to a classical computer. Imagine how much valuable things can be done with working quantum computer.

You can destrop on internet connection regardless of TLS, break safe connections for banks, equity brokerage, private corporate networks, not using post-quantum cryptography. You can break every private messenger application on the planet, you can decryp to be any PGP encrypted message sent on the email that you knew for the public key. You can break the Certificate Authority of the entire DNS system, allowing you to apply any server in the world.

All these things have an immense value beyond only $ 84,000. Why would you publicly reveal the fact to claim a bitcoin with a quantum computer doing some work on Earth when they can take advantage of all these other things that they will be able to do?

Well, let’s make all those possibilities aside and magically migrate the whole world from bitcoin to-quantum cryptography. it still If you have a functional quantum computer, there is no point in publicly trying to claim this award.

Suppose you have a barely enough quantum computer, that takes a decent time to crack a single key. How many bare public keys to achieve 50 BTC outputs from the first mining era? Thousands of them. Why will you make a crack on earth, and then ask everyone to publicly claim A single bitcoinYou will just try to crack many of those initial coinbase awards, before people can find out.

Finally, the timetable in itself is just absurd. Quantum computers are currently not able to factor prime numbers that people can mentally do themselves in their heads. In a single year the technology is about to jump to crack bitcoin keys? this is absurd.

So what is the matter of this award except some publicity stunts? It is perfectly meaningless as a serious reward for us to act as a canary in coal, no matter how concerned or unrelated, you are with the time limit of quantum computer as a danger.

This reward is a joke.

This article is a tech. The opinion expressed is a complete writer and not necessarily reflecting BTC Inc. or Bitcoin magazine.