Recently, Project Eleven (a research group of quantum calculation) has announced a reward of 1 bitcoin for the first team capable of completing a challenge to demonstrate the breaking of a key etc. (Cryptograph curves) using shor’s algorithm on a quantum computer.
The deadline for this challenge is April 5, 2026, which means to qualify for the prize that a team must demonstrate the breakdown of a key couple that must be performed before this deadline.
This is frankly a completely absurd and insignificant prize for a series of reasons, the first of which is the expiry of just under a year from today. Even the highly optimistic projections on the advancement of the quantum calculation have put the time sequence of achieving such an objective in more than 5-10 years. Expecting a demonstration of the concept of practical test that actually breaks a keyboard in one year is rather ridiculous to the nominal value, even if you see the quantum calculation as a short -term material threat.
Next is the factor of economic incentives. A single bitcoin currently applies about $ 80,000. This frankly is not a lot of money in the big scheme of things. Especially when it comes to the application of cutting -edge technology such as the quantum calculation that can perform an entire calculation class exponentially faster than a classic computer. Imagine how many more precious things can be done with a working quantum computer.
It is possible to stop internet connections regardless of the TLS, breaking safe connections to banks, equity brokers, private business networks that do not use post-quentum encryption. You could stop any demand for private messaging on the planet, you may decryst any PGP encrypted message sent via e -mail for which you knew the public key. It is possible to break the entire hierarchy of the DNS system certification authority, allowing you to impersonate any server in the world to which a user tries to connect.
All these things have an immeasurable value more than $ 84,000. Why never someone with a working quantum computer would have publicly revealed this fact to claim a single bitcoin when they could take advantage of all these other things that would be able to do?
Okay, we swear all those possibilities aside and pretend that the whole world magically migrates to post-quentum encryption apart from Bitcoin. It Still It makes no sense to try to publicly claim this award if you have a functional quantum computer.
Suppose you have a sufficiently performing quantum computer barely, which takes a long time to break a single key. How many naked public keys are ensuring 50 BTC outputs from the first mining era? Thousands of them. Because the hell you would make one, and then go say everyone to claim publicly A single bitcoin? You would only try to break as many prizes as possible according to the coin before people take over you.
Finally, the calendar alone is simply absurd. Quantum computers are currently not even able to consider prime numbers that people can do alone in the lead. In just one year, will the technology skip from the cracked Bitcoin keys? It is absurd.
So what the hell is the point of this prize except for an advertising acrobatics? It is not absolutely insignificant as a generous generosity to work as a canary in the coal mine for us, it does not matter how worried or irrelevant it is with the times of quantum computers as a threat.
This generosity is a joke.
This article is a socket. The opinions expressed are entirely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.