Does anyone have any information on the path to quantum resistance for Tezos? I propose by no later than 2025 our protocol should be quantum resistant on mainnet.
I am interested as well. I do not have much technical knowledge in regards to Quantum computers and can understand the underlying math to a certain degree but it will be a huge undertaking. Quantum mechanics will break the code from a very low level, especially considering how widespread the issue would be across the internet (it would break RSA encryption which is used by almost every website on the internet).
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I dont think that there is need for any action. Unless aliens surface and give us the technology this stuff is quite a few decades out, if it ever scales that far.
Just implement it when the technology is proven and tested.
The number of qubits per quantum computer has been doubling every year for at least a decade. There is no reason to think this trend will stop. Please provide evidence that quantum computers will not be a threat for a few decades… Because the smartest people in the planet are under the assumption that the singularity will occur by 2045 at the rate we are going.
Most of QC right now is pure hype and snake oil. This puts it quite well: Quantum computing as a field is obvious bullshit | Locklin on science Even your estimation of 2045 leaves more than 2 decades. If it should happen earlier and unexpectedly we would most likely be huddling around burning trash cans for warmth without internet anyway.
I think a hard fork of the blockchain to an earlier state with an quantum computing resistant algorithm might be rather uncontroversial then.
But a quantum computing resisting algorithm might be cheap and good PR, dont know.
I don’t think the question should be whether or not we should do this.
The question is when and how much (time/money/dev energy) will it cost.
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Thank you Haxerol. Very interesting article but I believe we can call that old news by now. Check out a more recent article of a useful quantum computer already currently in production:
Besides quantum computers we also have the threat of graphene CPUs but that is a different topic altogether.
I am not sure that the guys who wrote “Quantum Computing Progress and Prospects (2019)” know anything about the singularity. I suggest you educate yourself on the singularity. We already have ai that can predict future advances in certain fields. In other words we already have ai making scientific discoveries before humans. Once these ai are applied to quantum computing and cryptography it’s game over.
One way to keep delegators safe from quantum attacks would be if the system-core auto assigned a random public baker upon the creation of a new wallet. If the person is satisfied with the automated selection they would not have to do a manual delegation operation which publicly signs a message and exposes the surface area for quantum attacks. The random baker selection could be weighted towards those bakers with more free space. For example, Algorand does not have this quantum weakness since all stakes are auto-delegated by the system-core upon wallet creation. Also this feature may end up helping decentralize the system for governance if delegation is more spread out between bakeries by default. The system-core should also take care of auto-paying delegators based on a fee set by baker; this would further help reduce surface area for quantum attacks. And then Tezos Reward Distributor could be retired and delegators could feel more secure about always receiving their rewards.
