Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: How will Quantum computing affect Bitcoin?
by
Cnut237
on 08/03/2021, 15:49:04 UTC
reusing address results in exposed public keys as transaction will contain the ECDSA public key of the address.

The private key can be derived from the public key using Shor's algorithm given a sufficiently powerful quantum computers.

Yes. This is the easiest angle of attack. Asymmetric cryptography is vulnerable to a sufficiently powerful QC. Known public keys are the low-hanging fruit.
OP, this thread might be worth a read.

Whilst a viable QC of sufficient power to hurt bitcoin is likely years away, the question of how to defend bitcoin is I believe still open. A post-quantum cryptographic solution would involve everyone having to move their coins to new quantum-safe addresses. What happens to coins that aren't moved? Or that can't be moved because they are 'lost'? Should they be burned? Should they be left to be stolen by a QC, which could quite conceivably cause market turmoil, a tanking price, and prove fatal to bitcoin? There's no obvious consensus here, no easy solution.