It will take hundred of years to crack one single private key with today's technology
No. You will never crack a good private key with today's technology. Never.
Topic: I am terrified that SHA256 or ECC will be cracked and btc will become worthless (Read 2869 times)
December 04, 2015, 01:27:18 PM
No. You will never crack a good private key with today's technology. Never.
December 04, 2015, 09:21:28 AM
Well, there s always a distant possibility for this but I really do not think anyone can crack such a widely differentiate and distributed protocol with current tech. Blockchain s perfect.
December 04, 2015, 06:25:45 AM
This is like if they discover free nuclear energy safely available, it would make for alot of unemployment in oil industry but also consider the world would become massively better off with free energy. There is a knock on benefit from advanced technology, people may only see a negative first to their established practise. If quantum computers break SHa256 then the wider picture would be a big benefit for mankind from this extra power available, they'll adapt processes now vulnerable to instead benefit. They'd have to be very lax to let just one party exploit this power without realising it was becoming possible
December 04, 2015, 06:17:18 AM
I'm slowly beginning to not care at this point. My other investments are doing well, so why bother.
because bitcoin is not only an investments, at some point when it will grow on a global basis, it would be a catastrophe to have it broken by some future device
certainly if in the future there will be the potential to broke sha256, they will do it secretely, rest assured, like all the holes that were discovered years later...ssl heartbleed...
Again, the code can be siwtched quite easily to sha512, the only problem is 50% downsize in hashrate
this is not true for the miners, their asic will not work with sha512, so basically you're asking to sell 600 peta of asic and buy again 600 peta of sha512 asic, no way it will work
December 04, 2015, 04:48:22 AM
Yes. But it would receive some negative attention from the mining industry. The hashrate would decrease by much much more than 50%. ASICs would be rendered worthless since they are only designed to do SHA256D calculations and not SHA512. The GPU mining would be much more active again.
This can be planned in advance giving enough time for ASIC manufacturers to release updated hardware. ASIC hardware becomes obsolete fairly quickly anyway.
December 04, 2015, 04:29:06 AM
I'm slowly beginning to not care at this point. My other investments are doing well, so why bother.
because bitcoin is not only an investments, at some point when it will grow on a global basis, it would be a catastrophe to have it broken by some future device
certainly if in the future there will be the potential to broke sha256, they will do it secretely, rest assured, like all the holes that were discovered years later...ssl heartbleed...
Again, the code can be siwtched quite easily to sha512, the only problem is 50% downsize in hashrate
Just like it is now you mean
Mining is and will never be profitable Only with the bubble of 2013 it was profitable, al the rest is investing in power consumption, calculations show buying bitcoin is better than mining them... 
December 04, 2015, 04:23:49 AM
I'm slowly beginning to not care at this point. My other investments are doing well, so why bother.
because bitcoin is not only an investments, at some point when it will grow on a global basis, it would be a catastrophe to have it broken by some future device
certainly if in the future there will be the potential to broke sha256, they will do it secretely, rest assured, like all the holes that were discovered years later...ssl heartbleed...
Again, the code can be siwtched quite easily to sha512, the only problem is 50% downsize in hashrate
December 04, 2015, 04:05:32 AM
I'm slowly beginning to not care at this point. My other investments are doing well, so why bother.
because bitcoin is not only an investments, at some point when it will grow on a global basis, it would be a catastrophe to have it broken by some future device
certainly if in the future there will be the potential to broke sha256, they will do it secretely, rest assured, like all the holes that were discovered years later...ssl heartbleed...
Again, the code can be siwtched quite easily to sha512, the only problem is 50% downsize in hashrate
December 02, 2015, 03:16:24 AM
I'm slowly beginning to not care at this point. My other investments are doing well, so why bother.
because bitcoin is not only an investments, at some point when it will grow on a global basis, it would be a catastrophe to have it broken by some future device
certainly if in the future there will be the potential to broke sha256, they will do it secretely, rest assured, like all the holes that were discovered years later...ssl heartbleed...
December 01, 2015, 11:56:13 PM
I think you misunderstand. When I say 'cracked' I do NOT mean computers brute forcing their way through like you describe. I mean some maths genius comes up with a shortcut so my home pc could get a private key from a public key.
There are a lot of these 'math geniuses' who have spent considerable effort in producing the ideas behind ECC. They have been reviewed by numerous people (and I have no doubt cryptographers at various intelligence organisations would have had their own look) and there doesn't appear to be an significant weakness. Having a great understanding of mathematics makes it easier to understand the principles behind ECC and ECSDA but it does not mean you can find a flaw if there isn't one.
December 01, 2015, 11:32:59 PM
I'm slowly beginning to not care at this point. My other investments are doing well, so why bother.
legendary
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December 01, 2015, 10:59:18 PM
Here, just read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computing#Potential
Ok, I read it. Perhaps you didnt?
It will clear up any confusion about what I'm saying, hopefully.
Nope. It doesn't say anything about SHA256, RIPEMD160, or really any other hashing algorithm at all.
That's right.
Even though, as you said Danny, this has been covered in countless other threads...
I'll just repeat here:
A quantum computer is only faster than a conventional computer under certain 'quantum algorithm' conditions
Specifically, ECC can be theoretically cracked if a quantum computer can be made to run a quantum algorithm
version of Shor's algorithm. (not sure if I have the terminology 100% but you get the point).
And to my understanding, no quantum computer is anywhere close to that as they are only capable of
doing super basic operations, with no huge improvements on the visible horizon.
December 01, 2015, 10:38:55 PM
I would be more paranoid of a personal mess up, something like forgetting a password or sending money to the wrong account number.
December 01, 2015, 10:21:42 PM
Here, just read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computing#Potential
It will clear up any confusion about what I'm saying, hopefully.
No it does not. The majority of hash algorithms will not be able to be broken by quantum computers. What quantum computers can do is most likely be able to do is discover the private keys from public keys. However, this does not happen overnight and when such a computer is made that can do that, the developers will have time to switch the network over to use a different method of key generation. Even so, if you are using Bitcoin properly by not reusing addresses, then you will be safe from those attacks. Those attacks require knowing the public key, but the public key is not actually revealed until you make a transaction going out of an address. If you are doing it correctly, then by the time the public key is revealed, finding the private key to it is pointless because the address it corresponds to will never be used again. It will clear up any confusion about what I'm saying, hopefully.
December 01, 2015, 10:00:42 PM
Here, just read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computing#Potential
Ok, I read it. Perhaps you didnt?
It will clear up any confusion about what I'm saying, hopefully.
Nope. It doesn't say anything about SHA256, RIPEMD160, or really any other hashing algorithm at all.
December 01, 2015, 09:02:58 PM
There is no reason to believe that quantum computers are more efficient at calculting sha256d than ASICs
There most certainly is.
Name one.
Anyway, you missed the point of this thread - it is that computer's will becoming fast enough to crack the encryption that underlies the entire protocol - not anything to do with mining. And because these encryption keys will be cracked and the solution is a QRNG.
No, a difference source for random numbers is not the solution to a good algorithm that can caluclate the private key from a public key. If you have a good source of entropy and generate a private key with it,but I am able to find any private key given the public key. How is that going to help you?
Here, just read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_computing#Potential
It will clear up any confusion about what I'm saying, hopefully.
December 01, 2015, 02:01:34 PM
Everything can be broken! SHA256, your credit card credentials, and even the safe in our banks. Economy even gets broken every now and then.
Question would be if SHA256 is relatively safer than most means that store value, and comparing to that I'd say it is still pretty safe.
Question would be if SHA256 is relatively safer than most means that store value, and comparing to that I'd say it is still pretty safe.
legendary
Activity: 1302
Merit: 1008
Core dev leaves me neg feedback #abuse #political
December 01, 2015, 01:37:16 PM
Many threads discuss before in detail. Search forum.
Non issue.
Non issue.
December 01, 2015, 08:50:51 AM
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I'm not even sure why the forum allows this because technically they are duplicates and there are many of these "quantum is dangerous, and I'm scary threads". It is becoming tiring saying the same thing over and over again.
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I'm not even sure why the forum allows this because technically they are duplicates and there are many of these "quantum is dangerous, and I'm scary threads". It is becoming tiring saying the same thing over and over again.
- snip -
I find that more than 99% of all new posts on this forum are just duplicates of old threads that have already been discussed and explained.
If such threads were not allowed, this forum would be a much more useful and interesting place for those of us that have been around for a while and that understand most of the basics already.
However, if such threads were not allowed, it would force newbies that actually want to learn to put effort into searching through thread history and finding answers on their own. Newbies generally aren't that motivated, and those that already have misconceptions wouldn't even know that they have reason to go look things up. This would result in far less people learning and understanding, and far more persistent misconceptions and misinformation being spread and not corrected.
So while all these boring and repetitive discussions make this forum much less interesting and nearly useless to me, I recognize the benefit that it provides for those that need or want more knowledge.
December 01, 2015, 08:27:47 AM
Am I being paranoid?
You are being completely paranoid that's all 
It will take hundred of years to crack one single private key with today's technology
Maybe in the future where technology will be so advanced that computer can crack Bitcoin algorithm
But when that time come i think Bitcoin would be upgraded to something more advanced
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