Author: Mark Friedenbach 2017-08-22 20:20:41
Published on: 2017-08-22T20:20:41+00:00
The discussion in this email thread revolves around the potential threat of quantum computing to the security of Bitcoin. Erik Aronesty suggests that a new proof-of-work (PoW) algorithm using Keccak and a flexible number of bits could be designed as a "future hard fork" to render existing PoW obsolete when difficulty rises to the level of obsolescence. A new address format and signing protocols that use a flexible number of bits can also be introduced, which can be made immediately available but completely optional. Additionally, the POW difficulty can be used to inform the expiration of any addresses that can be compromised within 5 years assuming this power was somehow used to compromise them.Chris Riley argues that changing Bitcoin so as to require that early coins start getting "scavenged" at a specific date seems unneeded and irresponsible, as it is less than 7 years away and much sooner than it is believed QC or Moore's law could impact Bitcoin. He believes that people should have control over their own money instead of having it taken away based on some rationalization by a third party. Matthew Beton suggests that old wallets may be easily cracked if Moore's law is still functional in 200 years, and thus, we will need a way to force people to use newer, higher-security wallets, and turning coins to mining rewards is a better solution than having them hacked.Thomas Guyot-Sionnest notes that when Hal Finney does not wake up from his 200-year cryo-preservation, he would find that advances in computer technology made it trivial for anyone to steal his coins using the long-obsolete secp256k1 ec curve. He believes that people should move their coins about once every 10 years or so to ensure they won't do stupid things or come back 50 years from now and complain that their addresses have been scavenged. Chris Riley opposes the idea of allowing someone to steal someone else's coins for any reason as it is antithetical to one of the points of Bitcoin.
Updated on: 2023-06-12T03:47:55.654902+00:00