Ripple CTO David Schwartz says quantum computing poses a serious threat to the future of cryptocurrency.

On the Modern CTO Podcast, Schwartz says quantum computing will break the cryptographic algorithms that keep cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and XRP as well as the internet at large secure.

From the point of view of someone who is building systems based on conventional cryptography, quantum computing is a risk. We are not solving problems that need powerful computing like payments and liquidity the work that the computers do is not that incredibly complicated, but because it relies on conventional cryptography, very fast computers present a risk to the security model that we use inside the ledger.

Algorithms like SHA-2 and ECDSA (elliptic curve cryptography) are sort of esoteric things deep in the plumbing but if they were to fail, the whole system would collapse. The systems ability to say who owns Bitcoin or who owns XRP or whether or not a particular transaction is authorized would be compromised

A lot of people in the blockchain space watch quantum computing very carefully and what were trying to do is have an assessment of how long before these algorithms are no longer reliable.

Schwartz says he thinks developers have at least eight years until the technology, which leverages the properties of quantum physics to perform fast calculations, becomes sophisticated enough to crack cryptocurrency.

I think we have at least eight years. I have very high confidence that its at least a decade before quantum computing presents a threat, but you never know when there could be a breakthrough. Im a cautious and concerned observer, I would say.

Schwartz says crypto coders should closely follow the latest public developments in quantum computing, but hes also concerned about private efforts from the government.

The other fear would be if some bad actor, some foreign government, secretly had quantum computing way ahead of whats known to the public. Depending on your threat model, you could also say what if the NSA has quantum computing. Are you worried about the NSA breaking your payment system?

While some people might realistically be concerned it depends on your threat model, if youre just an average person or an average company, youre probably not going to be a victim of this lets say hypothetically some bad actor had quantum computing that was powerful enough to break things, theyre probably not going to go after you unless you are a target of that type of actor. As soon as its clear that theres a problem, these systems will probably be frozen until they can be fixed or improved. So, most people dont have to worry about it.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Elena11

Originally posted here:

Ripple Executive Says Quantum Computing Will Threaten Bitcoin, XRP and Crypto Markets Heres When - The Daily Hodl