Project Eleven, a group that studies quantum computing technology announced a 1 bitcoin reward The first team to successfully complete the challenge of breaking an ECC key (elliptic curvature cryptograph) using Shor’s algorithm, on a quantum computing device.
This challenge will end on April 5, 2026. To qualify, a team has to demonstrate that they have broken a pair of keys before this deadline.
The deadline is less than a year away. This prize is completely meaningless and absurd. The timeline for achieving this goal is more than 5-10 year, even according to the most optimistic of projections. It is laughable that you would expect to see a working proof of concept demo in just one year, even though quantum computing may be a real threat.
Economic incentives is another factor. A bitcoin is worth around $80,000 at the moment. This is not much money when you look at the big picture. Particularly when applied to a new technology such as quantum computing which is capable of performing an entire category of computations at a rate exponentially higher than that of a classic computer. Imagine the value of a functioning quantum computer.
You can intercept all internet connections, regardless of TLS. Secure connections to private corporate networks, banks, stock brokerages or equity brokers that don’t use quantum cryptography are broken. It is possible to break all private messenger applications on earth, and you can decrypt PGP encrypted messages that are sent by email. The DNS certificate hierarchy could be broken, which would allow you to pretend to be any server on the planet.
The value of all these items is far greater than $84,000. Who on Earth would publicly announce that they had a working quantum computing system in order to receive a single Bitcoin when they could benefit from all the other possibilities?
Let’s pretend that the world migrates magically to post-quantum encryption apart from Bitcoin. It still It makes no sense for you to claim the prize publicly if your quantum computer is functional.
Assume you’ve got a quantum computer that is barely fast enough to crack one key. How many public keys do you need to secure the 50 BTC of outputs since the beginning? There are thousands of them. How on earth would anyone crack one then tell the world to publicly claim it? A single Bitcoin? It would be best to try and crack as many early coinbase rewards before anyone detected you.
Finaly, even the schedule is ridiculous. Quantum computers are currently not capable of even factoring primes that can be done by people in their head mentally. How will the technology progress in one year to be able crack Bitcoin keys? That’s absurd.
What the heck is this prize if not a publicity stunt? This prize is a joke. It has no real value as it will not be able to warn us of the dangers that quantum computers pose.
This reward is a joke.
This is not a good article. Take. Opinions are those of the individual author and may not reflect BTC Inc.
“This article is not financial advice.”
“Always do your own research before making any type of investment.”
“ItsDailyCrypto is not responsible for any activities you perform outside ItsDailyCrypto.”
Source: bitcoinmagazine.com
