Are Quantum Computers A Threat To The Blockchain Technology?
From the emergence of Bitcoin in 2010 and the success it has recorded over the last decade, the blockchain technology has become too important to be ignored. In some circles, the blockchain technology has been described as the next internet. Experts have continued to hint the world on how the blockchain technology will disrupt nearly aspect of our everyday life, the elimination of trust occupying the front burner of the conversations.
At the moment, the blockchain technology is seen as immutable not only because it uses cryptographic encryption to secure data but the present-day classical computers do not have the hefty computing powers that are needed to decrypt it.
At any rate, the security of today's blockchain might come under serious threat with the development of quantum computers reaching its advanced stages. Before I go into the details, permit me to very quickly define quantum computers.
What Are Quantum Computers?
One way to easily understand quantum computers is to conceive of it as an innovative set of computers with super computing powers that are extremely faster than the present-day classical computers.
While classical computers operate in bits that covert and store information using binary codes, quantum computers operate in qubits with the capacity to simultaneously process multiple binary codes. In other words, quantum computers are a great improvement on the classical computers that we have today.
What Risk Do Quantum Computers Pose To The Blockchain Technology?
Towards the end of 2019, Google announced that it has attained quantum computer supremacy. With the announcement, the American tech company claimed that its quantum computer has the capacity to do in 200 seconds a particular task that the fastest of classical computers will need 10,000 years to execute.
To answer the question raised in the above subheading, quantum computers, although yet to attain their full potentials, do not pose any major threat to the blockchain technology, that is, the central idea of the blockchain technology. However, quantum computers can pose serious threats to existing projects running on the blockchain technology that is powered by the classical computers.
In this regard, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin,
Ethereum, Litecoin, Hive, etc can be at a great risk of being hacked and compromised by those in the reins of the quantum computers as early as 2027.
More specifically, experts believe that quantum computers have the capacity to use an algorithm to determine the mathematical relationship between the public keys and private keys of a Bitcoin transaction, consequently compromising it. And if the Bitcoin blockchain, which is today one of the most secured public blockchains in the world, is compromised then it follows that other blockchains are at risk.
The Way Forward
The only way forward is simple and straightforward. The blockchains of today will have to upgrade and integrate what is now known as the Quantum Resistant Ledger (QRL) to help fight any potential threat resulting from quantum computers. Any blockchain that fails to upgrade its protocol to integrate QRL will be forced into extinction because the future and technology wait for nobody.
The good thing is that Bitcoin will have a good chance at integrating QRL because of the billions of dolllars already invested into it. Also, the institutional investors who have already come on board will do everything possible to safeguard their investments, so there are reasons to believe that the race to attain quantum computing power will not find Bitcoin unprepared. As Andreas Antonopoulos puts it, be ready for a major update in Bitcoin when it becomes clear that quantum computers can compromise the Bitcoin blockchain.