In todays evolving world of technology, old blockchains are ill-equipped to deal with quantum threats, including cryptos with large market capitalizations. And how could it be? At the time when Bitcoin was created, devs were so enthralled with the robustness created by a near fail-safe network of systems that an emerging quantum threat didn’t come to their mind.
Relying on elliptic curve cryptography, specifically the secp256k1 curve, to generate private and public keys, it shows off its security by making it clear that brute-forcing its protection would require more time than the universe has existed.
Quantum algorithms, however, have changed this belief. With the likes of Shor’s algorithm capable of breaking this exponentially faster than classical methods, private keys aren’t safe anymore. The problem is that this isn’t a future concern anymore, as the public availability of blockchain addresses makes several cryptos’ networks vulnerable if quantum computing catches up.
What the world now needs is something beyond the standard paradigm — a system that can stand strong against post-quantum threats. What it needs is post-quantum cryptography. But since integrating such techniques is impossible in the existing and rigid networks, Bitcoin.ℏ, being built on Hedera Hashgraph, emerges as a forward-thinking alternative. It is sleek, it is fast, and most importantly, it is quantum-resistant.
What is Post Quantum Cryptography? Post Quantum Cryptography, or PQC, is simply an umbrella term for algorithms that can keep a system secure against quantum computers.
It means, instead of relying on traditional factorization or discrete algorithms—both of which quantum computers can break through in a jiffy—PQC implements hard mathematical problems.
These problems can potentially make systems secure from both classical and quantum attacks, and could include anything from lattice-based cryptography to hash-based signatures, code-based systems, and even multivariate equations.
With Microsoft deploying the first state of matter in its quantum computing chip, Majorana 1, global governments and tech bodies have started to work together to make PQC more standardized, with the US National Institute of Standards and Technology leading the initiative.
Four algorithms: CRYSTALS-Kyber, CRYSTALS-Dilithium, FALCON, and SPHINCS+, have already been selected for testing.
That said, it will take more than just software upgrades to implement PQC at a larger scale, which is part of the reason many blockchain devs are still relaxed about the threats it poses. Wallets and nodes would have to be updated with hardware while maintaining compatibility with existing systems.
It is a tall order, but considering how global technologies have accelerated in development over the past decade, projects like Hadera Hashgraph and Bitcoin.ℏ have rightly predicted the threats beforehand.
This blockchain equivalent has started to experiment with quantum-resistant primitives from the base level and has implemented a security model that makes it quantum-threat ready.
Bitcoin.ℏ’s way of dealing with quantum threats is through adopting the SHA‑384 cryptography. Consider this a truncated version of SHA‑512, which makes it collision resistant.
So how is it quantum resistant? Well, the most effective known quantum attack on hash functions is Grover’s algorithm, which reduces brute-force search time from 2ⁿ to roughly 2ⁿ⁄². While the algorithm does reduce the time to crack RSA and ECC by half and weakens encryption, Hedera Hashgraph’s SHA-384 encryption, which Bitcoin.ℏ adopts, therefore, will only be reduced to 192-bit, which is still large. It ensures that even the reduced strength still provides enough security to hold the line and protect the network.
The bottom line is that Bitcoin.ℏ implementing Hedera Hashgraph as its foundation in terms of security consolidates it as a forward-thinking project. It is working within the limitations of current technology, yet still delivers a robust solution against quantum threats.
The world can’t delay making the blockchain quantum resistant anymore. The technology is nearly here, and while production at scale will still take time, the cryptocurrency economy was built to last forever. That can only happen if new projects emerge with quantum resistance as their main selling point. Bitcoin.ℏ is such a project.
As a project developed on Hedera Hashgraph, Bitcoin.ℏ gets advanced security through SHA-384 encryption and the added advantage of fault tolerance, low energy consumption, and scalability. These traits could lead to better use cases, which further makes it a stronger alternative to other blockchains.
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