When can a quantum computer destroy bitcoin?

How can quantum computers affect bitcoin? Of course, the elliptic curve crytography has been under scrutiny since the quantum computing hype began. Bitcoin was built to replace third party trust with cryptographic proof. But it’s not just bitcoin. Two of the most common cryptosystems are Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) and elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). When you are online, any information that you exchange will be encrypted, usually with RSA or ECC. Both of these are vulnerable to attacks by quantum computers. A large enough quantum computer will become a security problem for anyone interacting online.

What will happen if a quantum computer can undermine the trust of the cryptography that digital currencies are built on? The implementation details of the currencies and how the exchanges handle transactions and wallets can change how seriously quantum computing can potentially impact the currencies.

Encryption Today and Shor’s Impact

Encryption works by applying a math formula to a message, and scrambling it so that only a person who you’ve authorized can see it. The safety of your message relies on the difficulty of “undoing” the mathematical problem without the key.

For example, RSA relies on the hard problem of factoring numbers. Multiplying two prime numbers…