[Cryptography] Proof that the NSA does not have a quantum computer capable of attacking public key crypto (yet)

John Levine johnl at iecc.com
Thu Feb 11 14:12:24 EST 2016


>A,B) Anyone with a QC could use it to break the keys of the wallets
>holding $500 million.

Which is under 5% of the NSA's annual budget.  Also keep in mind that
bitcoins are extremely illiquid.  The largest bitcoin transaction I
can find where the buyer got something of identifiable value was a
$500K villa in Bali.  (The so-called $147M transaction doesn't count
since there's no evidence of goods or services on either side of it.)
Fencing a thousand villas seems pretty hard.

If I wanted to use my NSA connections or my quantum computer to enrich
myself, this doesn't strike me as a particularly good way to go.

R's,
John


More information about the cryptography mailing list