Bitcoin researchers propose quantum fix that would not crowd out transactions
Researchers have proposed a new signature scheme called SHRINCS to protect Bitcoin from future quantum computing threats. This method aims to mitigate the space-efficiency issues associated with standard post-quantum cryptographic signatures, allowing for more transactions per block.
Why it matters
As quantum computing advances, Bitcoin's current elliptic-curve cryptography faces potential obsolescence; this research provides a path to secure the network without sacrificing transaction throughput.
Bitcoin proves ownership using digital signatures built on a branch of mathematics known as elliptic-curve cryptography. Those signatures allow someone to prove they hold the private key controlling their bitcoin without revealing the key itself.
But it is theorized that a sufficiently powerful quantum computer running Shor's algorithm — the 1994 method that lets a quantum machine unpick the maths ordinary computers would take millions of years to solve — could eventually break that protection.
Such a system could work backwards from a public key visible on the blockchain to calculate the private key, allowing an attacker to forge a signature and spend the coins.
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