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Re:Hacking Bitcoin wallets with quantum computers could happen by quickthrower2 on Sunday June 13, 2021 @10:31PM (#27498665)
Bitcoin would be least of our worries right? All current internet communication is effectively http not https with this. You don’t know if the server you are talking to is the real deal!
Re:Hacking Bitcoin wallets with quantum computers could happen by Thorrez on Sunday June 13, 2021 @11:18PM (#27498920)
That requires a MITM. A typical cybercriminal isn't in a position to MITM me. But every cybercriminal on the internet is in a position to steal my bitcoins (if they can break bitcoin crypto).
Re:Hacking Bitcoin wallets with quantum computers could happen by nothasan on Sunday June 13, 2021 @11:36PM (#27499012)
It’s not just cybercriminals who want to MITM. There are nation states who have been tapping fiber optic cables for a long time.
Re:Hacking Bitcoin wallets with quantum computers could happen by haimez on Monday June 14, 2021 @12:36AM (#27499350)
https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1401_08-12_mickens.pdf

If you have a mossad problem, big integers were never going to save you from that before or indeed, after QC.

Re:Hacking Bitcoin wallets with quantum computers could happen by riffraff on Monday June 14, 2021 @12:18AM (#27499252)
Sure but the average nation state does not need to steal my bitcoins.

OTOH the typical cybercriminal wouldn't have access to quantum computers for a while so this is a pretty unscary prospect either way, for now.

Re:Hacking Bitcoin wallets with quantum computers could happen by johnnyapol on Monday June 14, 2021 @12:21AM (#27499274)
There's active research going on into "post-quantum" cryptography to protect the need for secure communications if/when quantum computers become powerful enough to pose a serious threat to the status quo.

https://blog.cloudflare.com/the-tls-post-quantum-experiment/ is a great read about a sample deployment of this by Cloudflare.

Re:Hacking Bitcoin wallets with quantum computers could happen by tiku on Monday June 14, 2021 @02:56AM (#27500022)
Then we would get qhttps (quantum encrypted https)..
Re:Hacking Bitcoin wallets with quantum computers could happen by adventured on Sunday June 13, 2021 @11:22PM (#27498942)
Yes, at present Bitcoin is a trinket in the global scheme of things, a small toy compared to most other major economic items. Facebook is worth more than Bitcoin.

One of the things frequently intentionally neglected in Bitcoin discussions, is that it will die. It is guaranteed to die. It's a human invented digital technology, there is no long-term scenario where we don't kill it off through replacement and or competition. We'll be constantly inventing new cryptos, that process will never stop. The odds of Bitcoin maintaining its crown long-term are not good, for all sorts of reasons (not least of which are vast dilution through competition and regulation; eg nations heavily restricting foreign/external cryptos and only allowing official national fake crypto currencies (digital currencies), as China is speeding toward). We can and will replace Bitcoin with something better. And then we'll replace that too.

People that are irrationally, emotionally bound up in Bitcoin will fight you to the death to deny that. Bitcoin is not a forever technology, it's transitory. But who gives a shit about Bitcoin per Bitcoin, click, click, no more Bitcoin, I just moved my Bitcoin over to X blah coin that is better. The coins don't matter unto themselves, they're merely vessels for holding or moving value, nothing more. A crypto investor should always be prepared to abandon ship for something superior and maintain a rational independence from becoming emotionally biased toward a given coin. It's no different than understanding to not fall in love, so to speak, with stocks (or commodities, and so on).

The tragedy of Bitcoin is that as it fades away and gets replaced, it'll leave a giant environmental blackhole in its wake. There will be a question as to whether it was a mistake (was there a better alternative beginning technology for cryptos), or whether it was absolutely necessary to learn from to spark the field (and if so, was it necessary to go so far with it before abandoning it).

Besides the replacement factor, there is no scenario where major world governments allow Bitcoin to replace central bank controlled fiat currencies. Give up a huge source of their power, give up the ability to free-spend, 'print,' steal & paper over fiscal mistakes via inflation? Ha, yeah right. It's hilariously trivial for major governments to dictate financial matters within their own borders. Outlaw Bitcoin and throw a bunch of people into prison for using it and they'll instantly see 99%+ compliance, that's how easy it is to relegate Bitcoin to the fringe. All the largest economies are already priming their moves to squeeze crypto via intensifying regulation, to make sure it stays in the corner where they're willing to tolerate it.

Re:Hacking Bitcoin wallets with quantum computers could happen by rawtxapp on Sunday June 13, 2021 @11:35PM (#27499008)
Bitcoin has been dead hundreds of times already, it can die one more time [1].

1: https://www.bitcoinisdead.org/

Re:Hacking Bitcoin wallets with quantum computers could happen by quickthrower2 on Sunday June 13, 2021 @11:52PM (#27499125)
Actually bitcoin is more dead now than it was in 2013 - if your metric is real world use of the protocol. For example buying coffee with bitcoin. Or using it somewhere where it isn’t just turned immediately back into fiat by a 3rd party providing effectively a convenient “sell the bitcoin on Coinbase then pay with fiat” service.

Bitcoin is a speculative bubble and not much else.

The only hope it has is to be adopted as a reserve currency (not just legal tender) by many countries, and thus cement its value and then people will really be using it as a currency albeit on secondary layers, most likely provided by a number of centralised “PayPal-like” entities.

I don’t have faith in Lightning Network. Spend $50 to lock up $5000 where someone else can close you down and cost you $50 and you run around trying to find peers and be your own bank? No thanks.

So Bitcoin is a call option on this “hyperbitcoinisation” and anything less means it’s completely dead or just an occasional decentralised ponzi.

Re:Hacking Bitcoin wallets with quantum computers could happen by SRTP on Monday June 14, 2021 @03:47AM (#27500308)
This is so hilariously inaccurate it's not worth anyone's time to sit down and debunk it.

You sound like someone who sold all his BTC in 2012 and bought a 2nd hand Honda Civic with the proceeds, thinking you'd beaten the system.

Re:Hacking Bitcoin wallets with quantum computers could happen by atweiden on Monday June 14, 2021 @12:32AM (#27499320)
Cryptocurrencies have zero intrinsic value. If only one person owned all the bitcoins and refused to part with any of it, the world wouldn’t accept its use, and would just create another currency with similar properties. Ditto for every altcoin.

This is why altcoins haven’t displaced Bitcoin: touting technological advancements over and above the benchmark set by Bitcoin is more or less irrelevant, except to the extent the narrative underlying it produces a network effect to compete with Bitcoin’s. But there’s no logical reason why Bitcoin’s network effect should ever be exceeded — Bitcoin has the first-mover advantage, and is the most widely recognized cryptocurrency, with the safest and simplest technical implementation which is clearly capable of meeting the needs of cryptocurrency users. Speculative value storage is the only real world use case of cryptocurrency, and Bitcoin does it better.

Re:Hacking Bitcoin wallets with quantum computers could happen by wildmanx on Monday June 14, 2021 @04:02AM (#27500384)
Sadly, this comment being downvoted illustrates the bias in the HN community. People don't like the message, so they shoot the messenger.
Re:Hacking Bitcoin wallets with quantum computers could happen by kemonocode on Monday June 14, 2021 @09:51AM (#27502509)
HN has a strong anti-cryptocurrency bias. The comment got downvoted because it's irrelevant to the conversation.
Re:Hacking Bitcoin wallets with quantum computers could happen by spuz on Monday June 14, 2021 @04:16AM (#27500440)
I don't like downvotes because they don't convey very much information. There are many reasons to downvote something and no way to tell what that reason is. However, in this case, I think the reason is that the comment is both obvious and irrelevant to the conversation about security.