Subject: Re: [bitcoindev] Re: A Post Quantum Migration Proposal

From: Peter Todd <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 19 Jul 2025 12:05:52 +0000

On Mon, Jul 14, 2025 at 02:52:17PM -0400, Jameson Lopp wrote:
> Correct, this time is different in that we're not talking about vague
> unknown weaknesses. Rather, we're talking about a known algorithm that
> makes breaking cryptographic primitives orders of magnitude cheaper.

We already have known algorithms that would break cryptographic primitives if
sufficiently good analog computers actually existed. Or for that matter, "split
the universe" brute forcing. No-one is worried about them because "sufficiently
good" analog computers and multiverses are widely belived to not be physically
realizable.

For all the claims of progress on quantum computing hardware, the fact still
remains that no-one is even close to demonstrating cryptographic-relevant
quantum computing capabilities and the actual cryptographic-relevant
capabilities of real hardware are laughable. It's still an unknown whether or
not they are physically possible, and outside of the part of the physics
community that would like to sell you a quantum computer - or research
developing one - they're widely belived to be not physical.

Hence, these are still vague unknown weaknesses. Until progress is less vague,
actively freezing peoples' coins is not going to happen.

-- 
https://petertodd.org 'peter'[:-1]@petertodd.org

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