Researcher of smart contracts Gianluca Di Bella states: the threat of quantum computing to modern encryption is not a distant future matter, but a reality of today. According to him, the transition to post-quantum encryption standards is needed now.
Speaking at the UN office in Copenhagen, Di Bella explained his position through the lens of 'Harvest Now, Decrypt Later' (HNDL) attacks. Malicious actors gather encrypted data and store it until technologies capable of breaking the protection emerge.
Di Bella notes: practical commercial applications of quantum computing may emerge in 10-15 years, but large corporations like Microsoft or Google may find solutions in just a few years.
The researcher also raised the issue of 'quantum washing' - exaggerated claims by companies about the limitless possibilities of quantum systems. He expressed concern that if China develops systems capable of breaking modern cryptocurrency protocols, it is unlikely to warn the rest of the world.
When quantum computing reaches the necessary power and scale, it may undermine the foundations of traditional encryption security and zero-knowledge proofs. Encrypted data will become vulnerable to decryption, and proofs generated by traditional ZK systems may be falsified.
Several post-quantum encryption standards already exist - some are approved by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). These include the ML-KEM, ML-DSA, and SLH-DSA standards. However, there is currently no comparable post-quantum standard for ZK proofs.
Di Bella points to PLONK (permutations over Lagrange bases for ecumenical non-interactive proofs of knowledge) as a post-quantum implementation of zero-knowledge proofs. PLONK is a cryptographic protocol that allows proving knowledge of secret information through complex mathematical calculations without revealing the information itself and without requiring interaction between parties. However, these systems have not yet undergone sufficient validation and are considered research developments.
Speaking about the timelines for the development of PLONK to a state suitable for practical application, Di Bella noted the difficulty of making accurate predictions. He regrets the lack of investment in this sector - this topic is highly specialized and requires deep knowledge, which reduces investor interest and slows development.
'If you are a research and development manager at any corporation, you do not invest in what you do not understand,' the researcher explained.
The development of ZK proofs is conducted in the low-level programming language Rust with minimal abstraction and high complexity. Creating such systems resembles programming at the dawn of computer technology.
If we are now accustomed to high-level programming languages that hide complexity, then creating ZK systems is 'definitely mathematics again,' as Di Bella put it.
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