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In the nineteenth century, there was a bitter war between the advocates of two competing forms of electricity – AC and DC – that became a heated rivalry full of disinformation. Today, that conflict has echoes in the fierce debate between blockchain supporters who believe it is safe and those who think it can be broken by new quantum computers.
Thanks to the tamper-proof construction of its ledger, Blockchain is integrated in everything from insurance to immigration, and is, of course, the basis for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. But its open and versatile nature could be its downfall: in 2019, quantum computing could break the blockchain.
Quantum computers can store more information using less power than traditional computers, which means they can perform complex calculations quickly. Where a normal computer solves a complex labyrinth by descending along one path at a time, quantum machines can descend multiple paths at the same time.
As a result, quantum technology is estimated to be tens of thousands and millions of times faster than current computers – and more energy means that activities such as cryptography violation become enormously easier, potentially exposing financial records, personal data and other information sensitive. In 2016, scientists at MIT and the University of Innsbruck successfully built a quantum computer that claims that, if properly scaled, it interrupts RSA encryption, a widely used algorithm that protects everything from text messages to online purchases .
The blockchain is particularly vulnerable because it has only one point of error: all the blocks are freely available for criminal organizations or surveillance operators to collect. At the moment, they can not do anything with them because they are encrypted, but when the quantum calculation becomes quite cheap, there could be huge losses of blockchain data that could be accumulated now. It's like keeping your valuables in a locked box with a lock, but then leaving them on the street. Quantum "entanglement" ability also allows you to make logical leaps that conventional computers would never do. It could fill in the gaps between data gathered from a few blocks.
Because China is perfectly positioned to be the superpower of quantum computing
We went from theory and prototype to commercial quantum computing in a few years. In March 2018, Google unveiled Bristlecone, a chip with 72 qubits that the company believes will soon reach "quantum supremacy", bringing mass-produced quantum computers onto the market. The technology is perfected to create stable qubit processors and the mega-qubit machines are a few months away.
The industry is worried. Every year, researchers from governments and IT giants including Intel, Microsoft and Cisco meet with the best academics in the world of cybersecurity and mathematics at the Quantum Secure Cryptography Workshop to discuss possible solutions to the threat.
The current nineteenth-century war was over when the competing technologies of AC and DC were combined to allow both of their strengths to shine. The same collaborative approach is required today.
The technology to defend against quantum attacks already exists in the form of precursors of quantum cryptography such as hash-based cryptography, code-based cryptography, lattice-based cryptography, multivariate cryptography, and isogeneic cryptography of the supersingolar ellipsoidal curve, each of which improves previous iterations.
With the increasing attack on our personal data, such as the British Airways attack of September 2018, we must push for the collaboration between these seemingly competing technologies. Although quantum computing seems to undermine the safety of the blockchain, the answer could be to combine the two technologies and create a better whole.
Kiran Bhagotra is the founder and CEO of ProtectBox
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