Google's Quantum Computing Chip “Willow” Raises Concerns About Bitcoin Security

[yhiaali3]

The Quantum AI team at Google has launched a new quantum computing chip, “Willow.” The chip has reportedly been scaled up with more qubits and has the ability to perform fast computations with exponentially reduced errors. While it’s a big leap in quantum computing, it may raise concerns about Willow being a potential threat to crypto encryption.

Willow is powered to find solutions to computational problems within 5 minutes, unlike other supercomputers that would take a thousand quadrillion years to solve a massively complex problem.

According to Hartmut Neven, the lead at Google’s Quantum AI, Willow can make corrections to errors exponentially while performing complex computations at astonishing speed. He says “This mind-boggling number exceeds known timescales in physics and vastly exceeds the age of the universe”

He added that this chip is “able to drive errors down while scaling up the number of qubits.” He mentions it as overcoming a “key challenge” of quantum problems that experts have been dealing with for “almost 30 years”.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/google-reveals-new-quantum-chip-can-it-crack-crypto-encryption/ar-AA1vzAkM

I think the threat of quantum computing to Bitcoin security has been discussed more than once here or in other forums but this chip seems different and more advanced than its predecessors and brings back concerns about quantum computing being able to break Bitcoin encryption especially early holdings stored in Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK) format.

What do you think is this possible with this serious chip or are these just meaningless concerns?

[bitmover]

What do you think is this possible with this serious chip or are these just meaningless concerns?

If that  is possible someone would be already be abusing the system, solo mining many blocks.

We are not seeing this now.

When it becomes a threat,  the network will fork for more complexes cryptography algorithms,  making mining much harder

[Mia Chloe]

Quantum computing has been something I've seen discussions on many times however concerning the potential threat to Bitcoin security although it's true that quantum computing has been a concern for a while it's still not worth panicking about. Bitcoin's encryption is based on elliptic curve cryptography which is actually considered to be more resistant to quantum attacks than other types of cryptography.

Overall the fact is although willow does seem like a powerful too  it's not necessarily a reason to panic just yet. The Bitcoin community has been aware of the potential risks of quantum computing for some time and there have been no problems so far plus there would be solutions sonner than you think.

[Findingnemo]

Bitcoin's encryption is based on elliptic curve cryptography which is actually considered to be more resistant to quantum attacks than other types of cryptography.

With the existing model quantum computing can affect more than one way, SHA-256 hashes can be mined faster than any pools so it's possible to mine all the bitcoin blocks to themselves and also by breaking ECDSA, it is possible to derive private keys for any known public address.

About this particular chip this is not the quantum computing that can affect the network in anyway, it's probably the beginning of the quantum computing era but with the time there cen be developments made in the network to resistant to quantum computing.

[yhiaali3]

Overall the fact is although willow does seem like a powerful too  it's not necessarily a reason to panic just yet. The Bitcoin community has been aware of the potential risks of quantum computing for some time and there have been no problems so far plus there would be solutions sonner than you think.

Yes, there are definitely solutions against quantum computing, but this requires developing network protocols to be able to withstand this potential attack.

Anyway, from what I understand from the article, the big risks are only for old addresses that are of the (P2PK) format because public addresses appear in transactions for a long time, while modern Segwit or Taproot addresses are more resistant to attacks.

[Mia Chloe]

Yes, there are definitely solutions against quantum computing, but this requires developing network protocols to be able to withstand this potential attack.
Anyway, from what I understand from the article, the big risks are only for old addresses that are of the (P2PK) format because public addresses appear in transactions for a long time, while modern Segwit or Taproot addresses are more resistant to attacks.

Quantum computing is actually something that it's full potential in the cyber space still hasn't been harnessed yet. Let's first talk about brute forcing passcodes or passwords. now with our regular softwares with a good hardware backup or ASIC wares it's possible to brute force something as easy as a pin since we have just around 10⁴ permutations and luck could have it that you hit the correct permutation with the first  1000 attempts.

Now cryptography makes use of words not just individual alphabets and one of the reasons is the reduced the risk of brute forcing seed phrases and private keys so easily. With our current generation computers, it can be extremely hard to brute force a password especially if you have a large number of characters involved. The scare sometimes is that quantum computing would make all these as easy as brute forcing a 4 digit pin.

[yhiaali3]

Now cryptography makes use of words not just individual alphabets and one of the reasons is the reduced the risk of brute forcing seed phrases and private keys so easily. With our current generation computers, it can be extremely hard to brute force a password especially if you have a large number of characters involved. The scare sometimes is that quantum computing would make all these as easy as brute forcing a 4 digit pin.

The biggest risk for quantum computers is the possibility of accessing the private key via the public key, as you know the public key is generated by applying a complex one-way mathematical algorithm to the private key. This encryption algorithm is designed so that normal computers do not have the ability to reverse engineer and deduce the corresponding private key, but with quantum computers this may be possible now or in the near future.

As for passwords, it will certainly be very easy to crack them, but fortunately quantum computers are expensive so far and I do not expect that hackers will think of buying them.

[bitmover]

The biggest risk for quantum computers is the possibility of accessing the private key via the public key, as you know the public key is generated by applying a complex one-way mathematical algorithm to the private key. This encryption algorithm is designed so that normal computers do not have the ability to reverse engineer and deduce the corresponding private key, but with quantum computers this may be possible now or in the near future.

As for passwords, it will certainly be very easy to crack them, but fortunately quantum computers are expensive so far and I do not expect that hackers will think of buying them.

If they could achieve that, basically all internet, all banking system, all financial world, all military cyber security, everything would be compromised.

Bitcoin would be the least of the problems of the world.

When you use your bank mobile app you are signing messages using private keys. When you transfer money you are also doing that.
The whole world now depends on cryptography.

Don't worry, that won't happen

[Lucius]

There is so much talk about the fact that Bitcoin (among other things) will be threatened by quantum computers, and I am interested in how complicated it is (or not) to implement a new "mechanism" that will make BTC resistant to this type of attack.

The question arises whether it is logical to wait for something to happen first, and only then to upgrade the system - or act preventively?

[target]

There is so much talk about the fact that Bitcoin (among other things) will be threatened by quantum computers, and I am interested in how complicated it is (or not) to implement a new "mechanism" that will make BTC resistant to this type of attack.

The question arises whether it is logical to wait for something to happen first, and only then to upgrade the system - or act preventively?

I'm unsure what to believe because it's Google developing it. Preparing for It would logical.

Surely you should factor Googles Willow in your decisions on what to do after this bull market.
When you find out the Quantum computer can hack your BTC by the time it's fully abled, is it going to make you sell all for USDT or risking the other half only?

[yhiaali3]

When you use your bank mobile app you are signing messages using private keys. When you transfer money you are also doing that.
The whole world now depends on cryptography.

Don't worry, that won't happen

I don't have any money in the banks so I'm not worried
Also for passwords for financial accounts, banks, payment apps etc. they all use 2FA so there is no fear even if the password is cracked because the hacker needs the 2FA code via a mobile app or SMS.

Also I think all these concerns are theoretical because quantum computers are only used by companies for scientific research, experiments, simulations etc. and are not available for personal use as far as I know.

[bitmover]

I don't have any money in the banks so I'm not worried
Also for passwords for financial accounts, banks, payment apps etc. they all use 2FA so there is no fear even if the password is cracked because the hacker needs the 2FA code via a mobile app or SMS.

2FA uses cryptography as well.

In theory, someone with a quantum computer that can break private keys or solo mine blocks can just bypass the entire banking/exchange security system and do whatever he wants.

Everything you login uses cryptography.

[Husna QA]

The biggest risk for quantum computers is the possibility of accessing the private key via the public key, as you know the public key is generated by applying a complex one-way mathematical algorithm to the private key. This encryption algorithm is designed so that normal computers do not have the ability to reverse engineer and deduce the corresponding private key, but with quantum computers this may be possible now or in the near future.

As for passwords, it will certainly be very easy to crack them, but fortunately quantum computers are expensive so far and I do not expect that hackers will think of buying them.

If they could achieve that, basically all internet, all banking system, all financial world, all military cyber security, everything would be compromised.

Bitcoin would be the least of the problems of the world.

When you use your bank mobile app you are signing messages using private keys. When you transfer money you are also doing that.
The whole world now depends on cryptography.

Don't worry, that won't happen

Even if that happens, there will be a lot of pressure to ban its use. If misused, it can disrupt the security system in almost all areas related to the Internet, as mentioned above.

Examples of products whose use is even banned in many countries because they disturb privacy: Google glass (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/10494231/The-places-where-Google-Glass-is-banned.html).

[Stompix]

What do you think is this possible with this serious chip or are these just meaningless concerns?

This chip can't do a thing about ECDSA secp256k1, there is not even a theoretical computer anywhere in true research that can do it right now, the gap is just as large as in nuclear fusion, we have it but we can't get anything from it!

If that  is possible someone would be already be abusing the system, solo mining many blocks.

Nope, it can't, there is no quantum computer that could use the Grover algorithm to mine blocks in any successful way, besides, it would cost more to run that than what you would get from mining, putting a thing that could generate billions in normal work as an AI assistant to solve blocks would be a waste of potential and money, that's why nobody at Oak Ridge is mining monero! 

[yhiaali3]

Nope, it can't, there is no quantum computer that could use the Grover algorithm to mine blocks in any successful way, besides, it would cost more to run that than what you would get from mining, putting a thing that could generate billions in normal work as an AI assistant to solve blocks would be a waste of potential and money, that's why nobody at Oak Ridge is mining monero! 

Well what about solo mining? Can a quantum computer with this chip manage to find the block alone before the big pools and get the reward?

I mean there were people who used solo mining before the mining difficulty increased but due to the expansion of the network and the increase in the hash rate solo mining became impossible, but it may be possible with these quantum computers and the block reward it will get is enough to cover the expenses.