Just lately, Mission Eleven (a quantum computing analysis group) introduced a 1 bitcoin reward for the primary workforce in a position to full a problem to exhibit breaking a ECC (elliptic curve cryptograph) key utilizing Shor’s algorithm on a quantum laptop. 

The deadline for this problem is April fifth, 2026, which means with the intention to qualify for the prize a workforce should exhibit breaking a key pair it should be achieved earlier than that deadline. 

That is frankly a very absurd and meaningless prize for a lot of causes, the primary of which is the deadline of slightly below a 12 months from at the moment. Even extremely optimistic projections in regards to the progress of quantum computing put the timeline of virtually attaining such a purpose at extra like 5-10 years. Anticipating a workable proof of idea demonstration that truly breaks a keypair in a single 12 months is fairly laughable at face worth, even when you do view quantum computing as a cloth risk within the quick time period. 

Subsequent is the issue of financial incentives. A single bitcoin is at present price roughly $80,000. That’s frankly not some huge cash within the grand scheme of issues. Particularly in terms of the applying of a leading edge expertise like quantum computing that may carry out a complete class of computation exponentially quicker than a classical laptop. Think about how rather more precious issues may very well be achieved with a working quantum laptop. 

You could possibly listen in on web connections no matter TLS, breaking safe connections to banks, fairness brokerages, non-public company networks not utilizing post-quantum cryptography. You could possibly break each non-public messenger utility on the planet, you could possibly decrypt any PGP encrypted message despatched over e mail that you just knew the general public key for. You could possibly break the complete DNS system’s certificates authority hierarchy, permitting you to impersonate any server on the earth a consumer tries to connect with. 

All of this stuff have immeasurable worth past only a mere $84,000. Why on Earth would somebody with a working quantum laptop publicly reveal that reality to assert a single bitcoin once they may reap the benefits of all these different issues they might be able to doing?

Okay, let’s sweep all of these prospects apart and fake the complete world magically migrates to post-quantum cryptography other than Bitcoin. It nonetheless is not sensible to attempt to publicly declare this prize in case you have a purposeful quantum laptop. 

Let’s assume you have got a barely performant sufficient quantum laptop, that it takes an honest period of time to crack a single key. What number of naked public keys are there securing 50 BTC outputs from the primary mining epoch? THOUSANDS of them. Why on Earth would you crack one, after which go inform everybody publicly to assert a single bitcoin? You’ll simply attempt to crack as a lot of these early coinbase rewards as potential earlier than individuals detected you. 

Lastly, the timetable by itself is simply absurd. Quantum computer systems at present are usually not even able to factoring prime numbers that folks can do themselves of their heads mentally. In a single 12 months the expertise goes to leap from that to cracking Bitcoin keys? That’s absurd. 

So what the hell is the purpose of this prize besides some publicity stunt? It’s completely meaningless as a severe bounty to perform as a canary within the coalmine for us, irrespective of how involved or unconcerned you’re with the timeframes of quantum computer systems as a risk. 

This bounty is a joke.

This text is a Take. Opinions expressed are totally the creator’s and don’t essentially mirror these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.