I will now ask a question, please do not be offended, I am in a good way and with good intentions
Can you tell me what quantum computing is? Let me not waste your time and readers, but very simply explain why these two events cannot have a reasoned and logical connection! And so, very briefly the difference between ordinary calculations and quantum ones.
Now in the world there are essentially 3 main types of computing systems:
- analog (discard, not suitable),
- digital, these are our computers, cryptography in the field of blockchain and the like
- and of course these very quantum ones!
I won’t talk about analog ones - if you are interested, you can find a lot of information yourself.
But what is the difference between digital and quantum. In digital "computer" is a kind of processor that can execute a set of instructions and manipulate memory cells. Modern computers do this very quickly, even at home. And there are even supercomputers with wild petaflops performance! BUT. Even in multi-core systems, the calculations in each core go sequentially, and to calculate, for example, a new function value, they have to go through the entire cycle of the algorithm that describes how to count again.
But quantum computing is different. There lies a completely different physical principle of calculations, I would say - there is a completely different arithmetic. I recommend reading specialized articles, it's really interesting, but it takes a long time and it's not immediately clear
So, what is the advantage of quantum computing. For what I will write further - now quantologists would kick me with their feet for such an explanation, but it is the simplest and at the same time not entirely accurate, but it explains the essence well
So, the key advantage is that in a very short period of time, such a system immediately gives out ALL ANSWER OPTIONS. You will say - well, that's it, the cryptography is hacked, they will easily find all the necessary keys, and everyone will be stolen ... It seems that everything converges, it seems like a nightmare ... But no
The first reason is the amount of computation, limited by the number of qubits. And if it is easy to make a million-core ordinary computer, then a 512-qubit computer is still impossible to implement. You will laugh, but the first quantum computer was created in 1981 (1 qubit, if I'm not mistaken), and today, the largest ... as much as 66 qubits! (Zuchongzhi). And yes - it calculates specific tasks in minutes, while an ordinary supercomputer takes decades. But these are specialized calculations, but what about ordinary ones? But here everything is difficult. Very difficult ! By the way, I also recommend reading specialized articles about quantum algorithms - I promise a boiling brain
Well, now the easiest part. Suppose that the owners of a 66 qubit superprocessor have written an algorithm for calculating private bitcoin keys. And received in a couple of weeks... or months.. or... (it doesn't matter, believe me), ALL PRIVATE KEYS! What do they have to do next?
0. Take the first private key. Use it to calculate the wallet address (X).
1. Send a request to the bitcoin network, show me the balance for the wallet address calculated in step 0
2. Get an answer.
3. If the amount is greater than 0, then send a request to the bitcoin network: from wallet X (with a private key) to address Y.
4. Repeat it all .... And here we turn to the theory of Bitcoin: Bitcoin private key (in WIF format): it is 51 base58 characters, starts with "5". Those. essentially 50 characters of 10 numbers and 28 characters. Or a little easier - in HEX format it will be 64 characters from the range [0-9A-F], and this is 16 characters. And now let's find out how many iterations there will be? And the options will be... 2^256 or 115,792,089,237,316,195,423,570,985,008,687,907,853,269,984,665,640,564,039,457,584,007,913,129,639,936
This is how many times it will be necessary to repeat the algorithm, but already on real digital technology, in order to steal bitcoins...
I will not even ask - what kind of storage system is needed to store so many keys.
In a word - everyone can sleep peacefully, bitcoins are still under reliable protection!