Undertaking Eleven, a growth agency targeted on post-quantum cryptography, raised $6 million to assist safe Bitcoin and different digital belongings in opposition to future quantum computing threats.
In line with a Thursday announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the funding spherical was co-led by main Web3 investor Variant Fund and quantum tech investor Quantonation, amongst others. It marks Quantonation’s first funding within the crypto house.
Undertaking Eleven CEO Alex Pruden stated the funding will permit the corporate to construct “the instruments, requirements and ecosystem required to make sure digital belongings stay safe in a post-quantum world.”
In line with Eleven Labs and YCharts information cited by Undertaking Eleven, “There are at present 10,095,693 Bitcoin addresses with a non-zero steadiness and an uncovered public key, placing a complete of 6,262,905 BTC — price about $648 billion — susceptible to a possible quantum assault.”
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The corporate’s first launch, a cryptographic registry referred to as Yellowpages, is designed to let customers create a quantum-resistant proof linking their present Bitcoin addresses to new, safe ones, with out counting on onchain exercise. Pruden stated the registry will act as a fallback within the occasion that quantum computer systems compromise present Bitcoin keys.
Pruden stated Yellowpages was audited by Treatment 53 and that the corporate will put up the audit outcomes shortly. Undertaking Eleven has additionally opened discussions with Bitcoin Core builders about potential future upgrades.
The quantum menace to Bitcoin
Adam Again, cited by Satoshi Nakamoto within the Bitcoin (BTC) white paper, beforehand urged that quantum computing stress might power Bitcoin’s creator to disclose whether or not they’re alive.
The quantum menace to Bitcoin is a controversial matter, with some arguing that it’s a theoretical menace that doesn’t warrant devoted sources. Nonetheless, the chance is taken critically by many.
The US Nationwide Safety Company “intends that every one Nationwide Safety Methods shall be quantum-resistant by 2035,” in response to a late 2024 doc. Beneath these plans, new acquisitions would require quantum-resistant encryption by 2027, and legacy gear shall be phased out in 2030–2031.
The US Nationwide Institute of Requirements and Expertise additionally said in late 2024 that its objective is “attaining widespread [post-quantum cryptography] adoption by 2035.”
“It’s not a query of whether or not or not it’s theoretical, it’s at what level it turns into sensible,” Pruden informed Cointelegraph.
US nonprofit and international coverage suppose tank, analysis institute and public sector consulting agency Rand carried out an professional survey on the topic in 2020. The report estimated that the typical time till a cryptography-breaking quantum laptop emerges is 2033, however famous that “earlier and far later growth are doable,” with the vary ranging from 2027.
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Rand’s analysis preceded a research launched by Google in Could, which managed to scale back the requirement to interrupt RSA-2048 from 20 million to about 1 million noisy qubits operating for one week, nonetheless properly past right this moment’s capabilities, which hover round a couple of hundred steady qubits.
Classical computer systems are nonetheless king
Pruden informed Cointelegraph that “Quantum computer systems can already issue small ECDSA public keys.” Nonetheless, the identical will be stated about classical computer systems.
In a 2022 paper, researchers shared the achievement of factoring a 48-bit semiprime quantity, 261,980,999,226,229, on a 10-qubit laptop. Final 12 months, D-Wave used a quantum annealing laptop to issue a 50-bit semiprime quantity utilizing a hybrid classical and quantum search.
For context, the document on classical computer systems was set in 2020 on a supercomputer with about 2,700 CPU-core-years, which was capable of issue a 829-bit RSA key and concerned a 415-bit prime. That is equal to about three months on a medium HPC cluster.
Journal: Bitcoin vs. the quantum laptop menace: Timeline and options (2025–2035)
