[Cryptography] BitCoin as Quantum Cryptanalysis canary.

[Kapilkov, Michael]

From: cryptography <cryptography-bounces+mkapilkov=pace.edu at metzdowd.com> On Behalf Of Phillip Hallam-Baker
Sent: Thursday, December 17, 2020 11:16 PM
To: Cryptography Mailing List <cryptography at metzdowd.com>
Subject: [Cryptography] BitCoin as Quantum Cryptanalysis canary.

Like many others, I believe it most likely that Hal Finney was Satoshi and following a misguided hairshirt morality mined the genesis locks into the bit bucket. This hypothesis saves all the appearances and is far simpler than any competing explanation.

If we accept this hypothesis as fact, there is only one circumstance in which the genesis block coins are likely to be spent - if the public keys are broken.

Contrawise, in the case that a quantum computer capable of factoring the keys was ever built, what is the chance that it would end up being used to factor the keys that would unlock a few billion dollars worth of moolah?

We may therefore regard the genesis blocks as canaries for quantum cryptanalysis or some equally powerful advance in cryptanalysis of public key cryptography. If the coins from those blocks are ever spent, time to get worried.

Unless of course, the whole BTC system collapses under the weight of its own ridiculousness first...


I am not sure I follow your train of thought.  I believe the genesis block is hard coded and is not spendable regardless.  If I had access to a super powerful pc capable of breaking Bitcoin’s crypto, I wouldn’t start with the genesis block anyway as not to attract attention.  Also, realistically, in the next couple of decades the only parties that will be capable of developing such machines will be nation states and huge corporations.  Anyway, by then, Bitcoin would switch to quantum-resistant cryptos.
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