The Truth About Cryptocurrencies: A Clearheaded Guide to the Crypto World
(www.expensivity.com)
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Quantum computers are not magical or generic in any way. They're millions of times faster for certain problems, but everything else they'll do slower than a generic computer. We already have encryption algorithms that's unaffected by quantum computers.
As for mining, there's no need to worry there either. You know the ASIC miners designed for Bitcoin mining only and nothing else, they too are already millions of times faster than a generic computer. They're even faster than the theoretical quantum computer on solving SHA256 hashes.
It would be overkill and unnecessary expensive to use quantum computers for any type of hash rate attack.
How much faster exactly? We're talking keys the size of 2²⁵⁶ with brute force as the only method. Also, how is this an argument against crypto? with ability to crack this type of keys, all encrypted data would be at risk, this includes banks, secret files and much more.
Thanks to blockchain, crypto could fork at any point in time, and change it's encryption algorithm. If funds suddenly start to get stolen from wallets here and there everyone will agree to a fork that reverse to a time before the vulnerability.
How would you protect or reverse secret documents leaking out to the public. How will a bank recover, or a credit card company with physical devices and all needing to be replaced. It's gonna take forever, and some damage will never be fixed.
Worst case for crypto, network being taken offline until a new quantum proof algorithm is discovered. Soon as it's implemented the network comes back online again, in a earlier state.
Exactly my point, which is why I asked because you seemed like you knew for sure.
The biggest blockchain (Bitcoin) takes up no more than 200GB currently after 12 years of operation. each block is limited to 1mb in size, that's 6mb per hour, 144mb per day and 52GB per year, max assuming all blocks are filled.
How much more space exactly does it take? Why won't sharding and other solutions already being implemented and used on other chains work? What makes you think an update would be impossible, Bitcoin has already been forked many times. Sure all nodes must be upgraded before they can join the network, but seeing that's required to prevent theft of coins that won't be a big issue.
And that's not "fleeing to crypto" how exactly? Yes there's already cryptocurrencies using quantum resistant algorithms. Many POS coins where designed with a whole different type of algorithm, in many cases something that relies on memory. I have not yet heard of a quantum computer capable of storing more data and moving it faster than SSD disk.