Back in the 2000s, when I worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), I was the director of technology and innovation. Part of that role was not only helping the company and some of our clients with tech innovation projects, but it was looking out five years, 10 years, 15 years and thinking about what technology was emerging and what it might mean for our industry. And so, all along the way, I’ve had a real interest in identifying things that are interesting that maybe a lot of people weren’t paying attention to yet. One was the role of speech recognition. I was …

The topic of quantum computing has been steadily gaining interest within the cryptosphere, particularly so over the past 12 months. Given the heightened curiosity and concern, it is worth resolving some open questions around quantum supremacy for the crypto community, as there is a tremendous amount of misinformation circulating online. Will our Bitcoin be stolen? Many people harbor the fear that Sycamore, Google’s 54-qubit quantum processor, could outsmart the system and steal everyone’s Bitcoin. If there were to be no changes to the current implementation of the Bitcoin network, this would most likely become a reality within five to 10 …

The blockchain community should immediately begin working on three issues to prevent being overtaken by quantum computers, a cryptography expert says. Xinxin Fan, head of cryptography at privacy- and IoT-focused blockchain platform IoTeX, published an article in The International Business Times on Nov. 7, calling on the blockchain community to stay up to date about the progress being made on quantum computers. While reiterating that short-term developments in quantum computing are “modest,” Fan argued that blockchains will have to keep pace to avoid being overtaken by quantum computers as the technology grows and improves. As such, Fan outlined three major …

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is not at all impressed by the perceived threat Bitcoin (BTC) faces from Google’s quantum computer. Buterin took to Twitter on Oct. 23, where he commented on the news that Google had achieved quantum supremacy, meaning that a quantum computer has solved a mathematical calculation that would take any traditional computer millenia to solve. Buterin shared a seemingly snarky analogy: “My one-sentence impression of recent quantum supremacy stuff so far is that it is to real quantum computing what hydrogen bombs are to nuclear fusion. Proof that a phenomenon and the capability to extract power from …

The application of Google’s quantum computing technology could purportedly help improve the technology which underpins proof-of-stake (PoS) cryptocurrencies. Quantum computing would create truly random numbers PoS is a type of consensus algorithm where block creators are randomly chosen with probability proportional to their stake, while the algorithm of proof-of-work-based digital currencies uses mining. However, the PoS variant has raised doubts regarding the integrity of random selections. Scott Aaronson, a quantum theoretician at the University of Texas at Austin, told Fortune on Oct. 23 that quantum computing could assuage PoS-skeptics doubts, as a quantum supremacy experiment could generate certifiably random numbers. …

Bitcoin (BTC) has “zip” to fear from the latest advances in quantum computing from Google, one of the industry’s best-known figures has confirmed. The effect on Bitcoin? “Zip, bupkis nada” Speaking as part of a Q&A session on Oct. 10, Andreas Antonopoulos poured cold water on fears Google’s recent quantum computing success could impact cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. “What is the effect on mining and the cryptocurrency world in general? Zip, bupkis, nada, nothing really happens,” he summarized. As Cointelegraph reported last month, Google had announced it has used a quantum computer to perform a task, which a regular machine …

A well-known cryptographer has poured cold water on fresh fears that recent advances in quantum computing could endanger Bitcoin (BTC) security. Bitcoin versus Google’s “quantum supremacy” In a Twitter discussion on Sept. 24, ex-Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd led the criticism, which followed claims from Google it had achieved “quantum supremacy.” In a paper seen by the Financial Times, the tech giant said it had created a computer that solved an equation which would otherwise take 10,000 years in just 3 minutes 20 seconds. “To our knowledge, this experiment marks the first computation that can only be performed on a …

The major selling point of blockchain and its applications is that cryptographically secured distributed ledgers are virtually “unbreakable” under normal circumstances, given the current state of computational technology. Its validity, however, is heavily dependent on the “state of technology” assumption. Should a paradigmatic shift in computing occur, contemporary blockchain-based systems may become vulnerable to threats not accounted for in their design. But how urgent is the threat of this happening any time soon? The strides that physicists have been making for the last three decades toward building an operational quantum computer could soon contribute to such a shift. As the …

While Blockchain technology is a relatively new innovation, it has been steadily gaining recognition recently. According to Gregory Shannon, Chief Scientist of Carnegie Mellon University, Blockchain is a technology that has now found its way out of the encryption community and into other sectors as well. He states that it will be ideal for the economic systems around the world and also the healthcare and medical industry. Quantum computing effects Although encryption of data is a rather safe mode of transferring data through several networks, quantum computing could allow a third party to break through the encryption which can be …

IBM has recently announced that it has opened up its 5-qubit quantum computer to the general public. Has quantum computing finally arrived and what impact will it have on Bitcoin? Quantum computers Quantum computers represent a new paradigm in computing. While traditional digital computers store data in binary bits (zero or one), quantum computers store data in the form of qubits (where 2 data states can be superimposed.). This enables large scale quantum computers to solve certain mathematical problems in a much more efficient way compared to traditional computers. Asymmetric cryptography - the key to Bitcoin The Bitcoin protocol uses …