On December 10, Google introduced its latest quantum chip, Willow, on its official blog, reigniting discussions in the crypto community about quantum computing attacks. Will quantum computing undermine existing encryption security mechanisms, particularly posing a threat to mainstream cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin?
Satoshi Nakamoto discussed this topic as early as June 14, 2010, saying:
"SHA-256 is very robust. It is not a gradual improvement from MD5 to SHA1. It can stand strong for decades unless some sort of large-scale breakthrough attack technology emerges.
"If SHA-256 is fully compromised, I think we can reach some consensus to lock in the 'honest' blockchain before the problem and adopt a new hash function from that point.
"If the hash compromise happens gradually, we have a methodical way to transition to a new hash function. (Bitcoin) software can be written to start using a new hash function from a specific block number.
If ECDSA is indeed compromised, then Satoshi Nakamoto's legendary treasure, with a massive reward of up to 1.1 million BTC, attracts aspiring individuals worldwide to crack ECDSA. Who can say this is not another masterstroke by Satoshi Nakamoto back in the day? $BTC