Bitcoin Forum

What do people think will happen to bitcoin once nano-computing becomes more wide-spread?

My thought on that is bitcoin would become dead. I for one like bitcoin, but I love the idea behind bitcoin even more. Nano-computing is going to become a reality in terms of governments and big institutions in the very near future, when that happens wont the blockchain become un-encryptable? How could bitcoin make changes in preparation of that fact?

There isn't much of a threat IMO as even the industrial-grade supercomputers won't even be able to crack a private key off of a bitcoin address. Also keep in mind that there aren't any commercially-available supercomputer anywhere that can come near the level of quantum computing, or even quantum computing in itself is still an exclusive privilege to experience. Again, it will potentially take hundreds of years before we crack SHA-256, before going in to the juicy tidbits of bitcoin's algorithm. Perhaps by then, humanity would cease to exist because of reasons..

The OP asked about NANO computing, not quantum computing.


Nano computers will enable us to put a bitcoin node on a card or on a USB stick.

Would we then be able to utilize the power of multiples of such devices? Imagine a mining pool ran off nano devices, or some type of nano raid array if possible.

If you look at the history of encryption, none has lasted as-long as it is assumed sha-256 will last. I think any encryption available today will be broken in 20-30 years. The reason I believe that is because the percentage of society involved with computing is extremely low, computers have been popular for what...25-30 years maybe? As that percentage increases, more and more minds become involved in the advances of computing, making the likely-hood of changes extreme. But, seeing as bitcoin is based off of the elliptic curve over Fp, it will not be a simple task.

[/quote]But that's not how algorithms work, these aren't world war two codes, these are extremely highly sophisticated algorithms, more humans means nothing, they can't change the specifications o the algorithm.
[/quote]

More humans means that advances in technology takes place, meaning new computing languages, new computing hardware/software, and new ideas. These are highly sophisticated algorithms to who? Would an advanced alien race come here and say "wow, you guys are highly sophisticated"? If we were a highly sophisticated race I doubt we would still be using the same combustible engine for over a century. 

As things gets better and better the usage of nano computing will reach the cryptocurrency network. The computing power required for the bitcoin network is quite big. Earlier even the normal desktops were used in the process, now the specialized ASICs were made and it is truly complex to make things into nano level. Some created ways for mobile based mining which weren't effective as it can't give the required hash and power issues will be big with these.

Lets take your example of quantum computing and see what we get. Quantum computers already exist but work so hard that cooling is an issue, but once that problem is solved= watch-out. Here is a statement from bitcoin wiki "it is known for sure that it would take a sufficiently large quantum computer on the order of only 128 (to the third power) basic quantum operations to be able to break a Bitcoin key using Shor's Algorithm. This might take some time, especially since the first quantum computers are likely to be extremely slow, but it is still very practical". That works out to 2,097,152 operations. Now imagine how that number will change once we actually learn to harness the true power of quantum computers.

At the moment and in the near future, it is not possible to crack private keys from Bitcoin wallets. Well, when computers become powerful enough for this, then there will be other ways to protect data.

i havent thought about it before.but answer is same for all technologies i guess.i mean nano computing is going to use for blockchain as well as others.its a bit early to talk about it thou