Quantum computing hasn’t arrived yet, but the “exposure” of 6.04 million bitcoins is already on the table.
PANews, October 18 — According to Decrypt, nine blockchain-related organizations have announced the formation of a quantum alliance. Modeled on the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the alliance aims to establish unified, open “quantum-ready” standards, clarify and verify claims about the quantum resistance of networks, wallets, and infrastructure, and develop rules for compatible migration. Its work will be carried out by four working groups: blockchain migration, post-quantum zero-knowledge, wallet security, and cross-chain compatibility. Founding members span areas including base-layer protocols, privacy networks, rollups, hardware wallets, and security audits, and include Quantus, Postquant Labs, Midnight Foundation, Keystone, Abelian, and Hacken.
The risk highlighted by the alliance is specific: the elliptic-curve signatures used by today’s leading blockchains have left around 6.04 million bitcoins (approximately 30% of the total supply) exposed to quantum attacks. Once a public key is revealed on-chain, a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could, in theory, use Shor’s algorithm to derive the private key and steal the assets.
Observation 1: If these standards are implemented, wallets and cross-chain systems will be the first required to provide verifiable claims of quantum resistance. Observation 2: How the rules for compatible migration are set will directly determine whether existing on-chain assets need to be moved, and how.
Which details would you most like to see first—wallet security or blockchain migration?
Source: PANews
Image 1: Nine crypto organizations form quantum alliance to address quantum risks · Partial screenshot of source page
Image source: https://www.panewslab.com/zh/articles/01a14c64-12f5-75d0-a131-242ea85c1555
PANews, October 18 — According to Decrypt, nine blockchain-related organizations have announced the formation of a quantum alliance. Modeled on the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the alliance aims to establish unified, open “quantum-ready” standards, clarify and verify claims about the quantum resistance of networks, wallets, and infrastructure, and develop rules for compatible migration. Its work will be carried out by four working groups: blockchain migration, post-quantum zero-knowledge, wallet security, and cross-chain compatibility. Founding members span areas including base-layer protocols, privacy networks, rollups, hardware wallets, and security audits, and include Quantus, Postquant Labs, Midnight Foundation, Keystone, Abelian, and Hacken.
The risk highlighted by the alliance is specific: the elliptic-curve signatures used by today’s leading blockchains have left around 6.04 million bitcoins (approximately 30% of the total supply) exposed to quantum attacks. Once a public key is revealed on-chain, a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could, in theory, use Shor’s algorithm to derive the private key and steal the assets.
Observation 1: If these standards are implemented, wallets and cross-chain systems will be the first required to provide verifiable claims of quantum resistance. Observation 2: How the rules for compatible migration are set will directly determine whether existing on-chain assets need to be moved, and how.
Which details would you most like to see first—wallet security or blockchain migration?
Source: PANews
Image 1: Nine crypto organizations form quantum alliance to address quantum risks · Partial screenshot of source page
Image source: https://www.panewslab.com/zh/articles/01a14c64-12f5-75d0-a131-242ea85c1555