Gov't ability to break encryption

[ladydark]

I have only a beginner's understanding of encryption, so please bear with me. It was explained to me once that PGP encryption would take a long number of years to break with commonly available computer equipment, but that if, say, the NSA really wanted to crack somebody's encrypted message, they have quite advanced computers that would be able to do it in a less than ridiculous amount of time. Say, a few months.

Is this true? And if it is true, would the NSA be able to break Bitcoin encryption and therefore destroy the value of bitcoins if they really want Ed to? Or is Bitcoin better protected than PGP?

Its said that it would be possible if Quantum computers come in to existence.But it would almost take 20 more years for it to come in to existence.So no need to worry about that immediately.But also,work is going on to promote it.

[sud]

The question is even if the goverment already has the ability to break crypto encryption would they risk revealing it just to get some bitcoins? I mean wouldn't it be better for them to keep it secret, using it for the real threats and risks?

BTW I think we will see quantum computers way earlier than 10 years form now, so it is possible that gov may already using it.