I am terrified that SHA256 or ECC will be cracked and btc will become worthless

[mcplums]

Am I being paranoid?

[shorena]

Am I being paranoid?

Most advances in "breaking" crypto come slowly. You can e.g. look at the history of RSA and see that even until now, longer keys are a solution. It will not be forever, but there will be enough time to migrate to a quantum hardened algorithm.

[eddie13]

I'm pretty sure Bitcoin will be able to stay one step ahead of cryptography cracking technology and that it won't be all that difficult to do.

[gentlemand]

Anything's possible. If anything's desperate enough then it can evolve to evade the problems too.

[bob123]

SHA256 won't be cracked in near future..
Someday.. sure.. but by this date there will be a lot of new changes made to Bitcoin as a Cryptocurrency

[extrabyte]

SHA256 is really hard to be cracked because of the complexity, the quantum computers maybe can crack it but it will a long time from now.

[ATguy]

SHA256 won't be cracked in near future..
Someday.. sure.. but by this date there will be a lot of new changes made to Bitcoin as a Cryptocurrency

SHA256 is really hard to be cracked because of the complexity, the quantum computers maybe can crack it but it will a long time from now.

The good thing is you must not only crack SHA256, but a method which cracks two successive SHA256 where first SHA256 result is flipped. So after you find way to exploit SHA256, you must start new research whether it can be usefull to this more complicated two successive SHA256 Bitcoin implementation. Enought time to move to variant of SHA512 or something different.

[DannyHamilton]

Am I being paranoid?

Yes.

In order to gain access to my bitcoins, you'd have to simultaneously "break" SHA256, RIPEMD160, and ECDSA with the Secp256k1 curve.

And it wouldn't be enough to weaken the algorithms, you'd have to completely break them so that (given a bitcoin address) you could compute the private key within a short time.

These algorithms aren't going to go from being secure to being completely insecure overnight.  Weaknesses will be slowly discovered over years of research.  Even then, weaknesses in some of the algorithms will be discovered faster than the other algorithms, which will provide plenty of time to switch out the weaker algorithm in the bitcoin protocol while my funds are still secured by the other two.

[Amph]

again this argument but...only ecdsa is at risk with quantum computer, which is not a thing to underestimate, it can lead to the possibility of knowing the private key from public key

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/bitcoin-is-not-quantum-safe-and-how-we-can-fix-1375242150

[Lauda]

If SHA256 gets broken Bitcoin will be the least of our problems considering how many services (e.g. banks) depend on it. This would cause havoc everywhere. Some might argue that we should spend (actually waste) time on this right now, but (from reddit):

Rule: If it ain't broken implies don't fix it.
Fact: It's not broken.
Therefore by modus ponens:
don't fix it.

[redsn0w]

Yes, also banks are using the sha-256 bit encryption ... so I think if it will be broken they will attack for first the banks and not Bitcoin .

[extrabyte]

Yes, also banks are using the sha-256 bit encryption ... so I think if it will be broken they will attack for first the banks and not Bitcoin .

I read many articles that if quantum computers will be available they will break any bank system any encrypted files etc, so it will be bitcoin too.

[redsn0w]

Yes, also banks are using the sha-256 bit encryption ... so I think if it will be broken they will attack for first the banks and not Bitcoin .

I read many articles that if quantum computers will be available they will break any bank system any encrypted files etc, so it will be bitcoin too.

Bitcoin will be the last of the sha-256 'break', why attack btc when you can steal all the money in the various bank accounts ?

[extrabyte]

Yes, also banks are using the sha-256 bit encryption ... so I think if it will be broken they will attack for first the banks and not Bitcoin .

I read many articles that if quantum computers will be available they will break any bank system any encrypted files etc, so it will be bitcoin too.

Bitcoin will be the last of the sha-256 'break', why attack btc when you can steal all the money in the various bank accounts ?

Lol you are right, but this is when the new quantum computers will be in the market, but of course this can be used to protect banks and other companies that contains high sensitive information.

[Lauda]

I read many articles that if quantum computers will be available they will break any bank system any encrypted files etc, so it will be bitcoin too.

By that time (even if it was possible in a small amount of time) nobody would be using SHA256. Technically that article is completely wrong.

[Mickeyb]

Yes, also banks are using the sha-256 bit encryption ... so I think if it will be broken they will attack for first the banks and not Bitcoin .

I read many articles that if quantum computers will be available they will break any bank system any encrypted files etc, so it will be bitcoin too.

Bitcoin will be the last of the sha-256 'break', why attack btc when you can steal all the money in the various bank accounts ?

Lol you are right, but this is when the new quantum computers will be in the market, but of course this can be used to protect banks and other companies that contains high sensitive information.

Banks will update algorithms if necessary, Bitcoin will update algorithms if necessary, everybody will update everything if necessary. Technology is improving and it's normal that systems are being improved as well.

I see no biggie here and OP you can completely stop worrying!

[jaylin]

Yeah but the problem is of course if governments with their endless money and power can create Quantum Super computers before anybody else and just decide to wipe out BTC for good before the cat and mouse game can even start..

[Bitcoinpro]

Yeah but the problem is of course if governments with their endless money and power can create Quantum Super computers before anybody else and just decide to wipe out BTC for good before the cat and mouse game can even start..

if anyone cracks SHA256 ill be the first to do it   

[ranochigo]

There is currently no huge weaknesses in SHA256, collision etc. I don't think it would be cracked in the near future either, Bitcoin can very easily change it's algorithm. ECDSA can be cracked with quantum computing however, but that is still quite sometime away and it would only be a threat if there is address reuse, public keys should take weeks to crack to get the private key.

[VirosaGITS]

Am I being paranoid?

All of the sun's electricity is not enough to power all the computers it would take to crack a single priv key before it runs out in billions of year.

So yes, absolutely and completely Paranoid. If some Omg super mega computer that was able to work at the speed of of a galaxy full of computer would appear, well our world would end, but if it did not, BTC would still be fine, the network would switch to a new ALGO, it would probably lose some value from the scare but whatever.