Quantum Computing and Its Potential Impact on Cryptography and Blockchain Security.

CAPTION – Quantum computers could soon pose a threat to blockchain security. Chinese researchers claim to have cracked RSA-2048 algorithm with a quantum computer. Follow us for updates on the potential impact of quantum computing on cryptography and security. #quantumcomputing #cryptography #blockchain

Cryptography experts are debating the feasibility of a recently claimed method for breaking the RSA-2048 signing algorithm, which is used in many blockchains and other security protocols. The RSA algorithm utilizes a public key to encrypt information and a private key to decrypt it, and finding the prime factors of a large number is required to breach it.

It is estimated that it would take ordinary computers 300 trillion years to break an RSA-2048 encryption key. However, Chinese researchers recently published a paper claiming that the encryption could be inverted using a quantum computer with 372 qubits.

The latest IBM Osprey quantum computer has a processing capacity of 433 qubits, and experts previously calculated that factoring RSA-2048 with quantum computers using Shor’s algorithm would require 13,436 qubits. Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which can exist in multiple states simultaneously and allow for much faster calculations than classical computers.

Cryptographer Bruce Schneier commented that the Chinese researchers appeared to have combined “classical lattice reduction factoring techniques with a quantum approximate optimization algorithm” that successfully factored 48-bit numbers using a 10-qubit quantum computer.

However, he also noted that the algorithm relies on a recent factoring paper by Peter Schnorr, which does not scale well to larger sizes. Security expert Roger Grimes added that the Chinese team was able to achieve their results by solving a step that had previously stumped another researcher using classical computers.

While the scalability of the technique is still being debated, it is clear that quantum computers have the potential to impact the field of cryptography, including blockchains. It is important for the community to continue researching and developing quantum-resistant solutions in preparation for the eventuality that quantum computers become powerful enough to pose a threat to current cryptographic algorithms.