Ask HN: What will happen with BitCoin eventually

Posted by dmitryame on Friday May 26, 2017 @09:08PM
from the ask-hn dept.

Is it the right assumption that when quantum computing becomes a reality, it will render BitCoin (as well as all other cryptocurrencies) obsolete overnight. Can/Should anything be done today to prevent this from happening?

( 6 comments | 10 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: What will happen with BitCoin eventually by toexitthedonut on Saturday May 27, 2017 @05:56PM (#14432135)

Don't think about what will happen to Bitcoin in that situation, because its hashing algorithm is nothing particularly unique. Think of what will happen to SHA-1, -2, etc. The NSA is likely already thinking well ahead about this possibility.

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Re:Ask HN: What will happen with BitCoin eventually by solomatov on Friday May 26, 2017 @09:52PM (#14428497)

I think, bitcoin will be banned by most of governments earlier than quantum computing will become widespread to break bitcoin.

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Re:Ask HN: What will happen with BitCoin eventually by dmitryame on Friday May 26, 2017 @10:03PM (#14428535)

How can you ban something that can not be banned by design?

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Re:Ask HN: What will happen with BitCoin eventually by solomatov on Friday May 26, 2017 @11:02PM (#14428727)

You can read more about vulnerabilities here: https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses

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Re:Ask HN: What will happen with BitCoin eventually by solomatov on Friday May 26, 2017 @11:02PM (#14428725)

Powerful countries can easily perform 50% attack and decide which transactions get confirmed and which not. Effectively, this makes it possible to completely stop transactions on the network.

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Re:Ask HN: What will happen with BitCoin eventually by dmitryame on Saturday May 27, 2017 @09:35AM (#14429993)

In theory, such an attack is possible, in practice -- very unlikely at this point given the number of miners out there. Here is what it was in 2015: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-19/bitcoins-computing-... Today it's even higher than ever: https://news.bitcoin.com/why-bitcoin-is-close-to-a-record-br...

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