The Future of Cryptographic Security in the Age of Quantum

The way we think about encryption is starting to change, and NIST is working on making cryptography resistant to quantum computing. New cryptographic algorithms are needed, and Bitcoin developers need to start preparing for the future as well. Quantum Computing Threatens Cryptography Algorithms. Technology is advancing at an accelerated pace, and the....

Quantum computing still has a long way to go before posing a threat to blockchain technology. Quantum computing has raised concerns about the future of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology in recent years. For example, it is commonly assumed that very sophisticated quantum computers will one day be able to crack present-day encryption, making security a serious concern for users in the blockchain space.The SHA-256 cryptographic protocol used for Bitcoin network security is currently unbreakable by today’s computers. However, experts anticipate that within a decade, quantum computing....

According to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), while quantum computers are incapable of breaking public key encryption algorithms, public and private entities need to prepare for future threats against cryptography that is not quantum resistant. Most of today’s digital communications, including cryptocurrencies, leverage public key encryption and CISA believes when “quantum computers reach higher levels of computing power and speed, they will be capable of breaking the public key cryptography algorithms that are in use today.” US....

What happens to cryptography once quantum computers are everywhere? Will it still be possible to keep encrypted systems — like the Bitcoin network — secure? This week, Google addressed the question with a blog post titled, “Experimenting with Post-Quantum Cryptography,” which looks at how possible computing speeds in the future could compromise encryption, even today. Quantum computing, long a computer science holy grail, promises to increase processing speeds on data operations exponentially. Rather than coding data into binary bits that must be either “1” or “0,” a quantum computer would....

Worried about security for your bitcoin in the face of quantum computing? According to computer researchers, there’s no reason to be. Some people assume that once quantum computing comes along modern encryption technologies will be outpowered. But experts are starting to posit that hash functions and asymmetric encryption could defend not only against modern computers, but also against quantum attackers from the future. Matthew Amy from Canada’s University of Waterloo proposes just this in a paper by the International Association of Cryptologic Research. Amy, and researchers from Perimeter....