Topic: What is the core dev team plan to fight Quantum computers? - page 2. (Read 290 times)

It is real and fixes exist. It's just that it's not yet necessary so there is no need to bother with.
In short: it is called post-quantum cryptography and various quantum-proof algorithms exist, which would replace the old public key crypto.

Interestingly, symmetric crypto is not really affected by quantum computers, so AES remains safe for instance.

seems the topic creator has not read the other quantum risk topics..

so here goes

P2PK is at risk. so its advised dont use P2PK(especially with large tempting amounts you dont want to lose)
also when spending funds on any format. it reveals the PK.. so dont re-use the addresses of any formats after spending them. generate a fresh address to receive change and future funds. and make the one you spend obsolete

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satoshi (whether he realised/intended to do it or not) left a huge stash of coins over thousands of p2pk address. and a few of them (atleast one) is a used and re-used address..
.. setting up a good testing ground/challenge of "try and attack it if you can" as a security test. which so far for 14 year no one has stolen his stash

if a company with a multi billion dollar system was to waste days (yep still days) reverse-engineering Public-Key to private. then the reward would need to be worth it.

so 1 address of 50 coins.. maybe not even be good enough($1m in comparison to the machines cost. is small fry*)

however there is currently at time of writing this a more worthy address to target should a QC try:
1LQoWist8KkaUXSPKZHNvEyfrEkPHzSsCd   124,347 BTC (worth over $2bill) is a re-used address, ripe for the picking

and so if QC was to try. i would see them try it on this address, to be worth their time and effort and to really scare the community

however expect them to then be getting knocks at the door by the FBI

so all in all dont worry about your small amount coins. especially if you atleast practise "dont re-use addresses"

*but if a QC business was to do it.(they wouldnt) but if they did. they would quite quickly have the FBI knocking on their lab door seizing their hardware

To answer your question which I think pooya87 pretty much cleared up. There's been no official discussion to my knowledge of Quantum Computers, and how Bitcoin plans to deal with them. There's been plenty of unofficial discussions like others have suggested, but that's not what you asked. Official discussions aren't likely to take place, until Quantum Computers start posing a threat. It'll be before they are a threat, but much closer than we are now.

We aren't that close despite what Sci Fi news sources claim. I imagine there will be a thread here on Bitcointalk when that does come around, likely in Development & Technical Discussion or depending on the severity Important Announcements.

I haven't seen any serious or "official" discussions on alternative cryptography algorithms to replace what Bitcoin uses in case some day in the far away future the quantum computing threat became real but the "unofficial" statements sometimes point to algorithms such as Lamport signatures or Merkle signatures. And of course the general work that is being done in the world (ie. unrelated to bitcoin) for the post-quantum-computer era for cryptography.
But the problem with these algorithms is that they produce larger signatures that would increase transaction size and obviously eat up block space much quicker so it is going to be challenging to find a good replacement. Another problem off the top of my head is for example keys in Lamport signatures can not be reused, which is something a lot of bitcoin users do.

The good news is that we are still years (probably decades) away from needing a real replacement.

That’s how I remember it too… the devs aren’t afraid of quantum computing at all because the whole banking system will be at risk if quantum computers are capable of cracking SHA256. They probably think that there are only 2 possibilities.

1- Quantum computing is fugazi.
2- If it is real, somebody else will come up with a fix and we will apply that to bitcoin

Why should Bitcoin devs waste their time on a threat that is powerless today, will be powerless in the near future and unclear when or even if it will ever be serious enough to put private keys at risk. And this threat is not unique to Bitcoin, your credit card and Internet connection also could be hacked by a quantum computer, yet cryptography researches are not rushing to shift towards quantum-resistant cryptography, because they know there's still a lot of time left.

Quantum computing is one of the most discussed topics of the forum for the past 10 or so years. Use the search options snv you will discover multiple topics which answer your question and you can bump any of the old ones if you have new questions.

Check here - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/can-quantum-computers-destroy-blockchain-and-bitcoinssha-256-specifically-5381812
And here on stackexchange - https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/6062/what-effects-would-a-scalable-quantum-computer-have-on-bitcoin/7134#7134

So you have been told developers won't let it die? Questions arise, who supports QC development and who supports an open source decentralized application?
Who has more money and power?
Have you seen any scientifically provable quantum resistant algorithms that could be used with bitcoin?

I'm sure governments already have their own quantum solutions, but does a multi-billion dollar open source market have it's own or we need to believe whatever is written on an internet forum?

I am not sure if there is a official plan towards the existence of quantum computing.
Last time I checked this argument, people seemed to agree (sort of) that a hard fork would be necessary to fully harden Bitcoin against those threats.

As long term investor I am also worried about the defense of the protocol, the technology is advancing very fast, however, I have been told around here not to worry about it, since the developers won't let the project to be killed by qubits.

Is there any plan at all? Is there any official announcement from the developers? Do they even know how to prevent an attack from a QC?