256 bit encryption cracked ... does it affect Bitcoin security?

[BitcoinPersonalities]

http://www.crownsterling.io/2019/09/crown-sterling-decrypts-rsa-asymmetric-public-keys-in-live-demonstration/

I am not a tech person, so I’m curious what all this means? Are they able crack a pgp message? Or simply connect to public key to the private key? Or what is this? Also, how might if at all it affect Bitcoin private keys?

TIA

[larouda]

LoL

For RSA the recommended key bit size these days is 3072 to 4096

There's no relevance to bitcoin (ecdsa)

http://www.crownsterling.io/2019/09/crown-sterling-decrypts-rsa-asymmetric-public-keys-in-live-demonstration/

I am not a tech person, so I’m curious what all this means? Are they able crack a pgp message? Or simply connect to public key to the private key? Or what is this? Also, how might if at all it affect Bitcoin private keys?

TIA

[hatshepsut93]

Sounds like they have cracked RSA for 256bit and 512bit keys. But don't worry, it doesn't affect Bitcoin, because it doesn't use RSA anywhere, it uses ECDSA. RSA is known to have problems, while ECDSA is considered pretty safe at the moment. So you really should only watch for algorithms that are used in Bitcoin, the fact that some other algorithms get broken don't affect it.

[BitcoinPersonalities]

That’s for the replies guys. So, is pgp as we know it in danger of being cracked? Or where can I read more on what they are cracking?

[pooya87]

congratulations they broke a ~4 bit security level key in their attempt

but jokes aside in cryptography the size is not the only thing that matters, the estimated "security level" that the keys provide is the important thing. size is only one factor that determines that level. for instance for Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) the security level is half the key size but in Rivest–Shamir–Adleman (RSA) algorithm the security level is a lot lower than just half (calculated like this).
in short you can refer to the table provided in Standards for Efficient Cryptography (SEC 1):


the achievements that this paper is about, is the Factorization they are using and the optimization that has led to which is reducing the time it takes to break RSA by a lot.

[Broly46]

It will be great to crack the private key. Can’t wait to see the day when private key are free to crack for everyone, we will be seeing bitcoin transaction counts shooting thru the roof and network congestion get to a point that took years to send one coin and fee higher than the moon.

[Kakmakr]

People who knows very little about algorithms will get confused with all the different technologies and how difficult it is to crack it. They hear the word quantum technology and they think all the algorithms are hack-able. 

In any way, let's not get all rallied up about the RSA encryption, because it's one of the easiest algorithms to crack.    Cryptography is also a evolving technology, so we will always have stronger encryption being developed all the time. 

[Lorence.xD]

If I recall correctly the time to crack the bit increases exponentially as the bit increases. This means that they need a higher end and cutting edge computer to perform a decent encryption. I do not that it will be a threat but it should be on a watchlist because the generated characters are still limited.

[BlackHatCoiner]

When ECDSA gets cracked, we're all done. Bitcoin will be completely destroyed/devaluated and that's just one thing. Who knows how many companies out there use ECDSA. Watching how technology gets developed, we can't say anything about bitcoin's security. #afraiding_of_quantum_computers

It will be great to crack the private key. Can’t wait to see the day when private key are free to crack for everyone, we will be seeing bitcoin transaction counts shooting thru the roof and network congestion get to a point that took years to send one coin and fee higher than the moon.

Why so much impatience about that? It will mean the end of bitcoin.

[btmtb]

http://www.crownsterling.io/2019/09/crown-sterling-decrypts-rsa-asymmetric-public-keys-in-live-demonstration/

I am not a tech person, so I’m curious what all this means? Are they able crack a pgp message? Or simply connect to public key to the private key? Or what is this? Also, how might if at all it affect Bitcoin private keys?

TIA

https://sectigostore.com/blog/ecdsa-vs-rsa-everything-you-need-to-know/ This is a very accessible background article to dip your toe into the strengths and weaknesses of RSA and ECDSA.

... bring on the quantum calculations, they might cause us to break bit of a sweat!

[pawanjain]

We are using much stronger RSA key. Funds are safu

Actually, we are not using RSA (Rivest Shamir Adleman) algorithm at all in fact we are using ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm).
Though RSA and and ECDSA both have asymmetric encryption, they do have their differences.

RSA uses prime factorization method for it's encryption while ECDSA use elliptic curves.
It is already proven that ECDSA are better in security than RSA as of current methods of cracking.