Can the Most Powerful Computer on Earth Hack Bitcoin?

[Ucy]

Let me avoid the technical aspects to make things easy for all readers.

So someone said that America's NSA has this great computer(quantum computer) that could easily hack Bitcoin private keys. I really doubt his claim but I know for sure that certain computers  like the most powerful Super Computers are within the reach of some of this Intelligence organizations.
Do you think such computers can crack any security codes put in place to make Bitcoin very secure?

[itsallpc]

I think its now impossible to do so.But when quantum computing would be introduced after twenty years,then bitcoin's security might be compromised and bitcoin might get worthless.But we may expect that some precautions might be taken much before such disasters occur.

[ecnalubma]

Let me avoid the technical aspects to make things easy for all readers.

So someone said that America's NSA has this great computer(quantum computer) that could easily hack Bitcoin private keys. I really doubt his claim but I know for sure that certain computers  like the most powerful Super Computers are within the reach of some of this Intelligence organizations.
Do you think such computers can crack any security codes put in place to make Bitcoin very secure?

Let me say this bitcoin is in circulation for almost a decade now every year it improves and become stable, there are a lot of hacking attempts from the past but none of them succeed. It means that bitcoin is very hard to contaminate or alter by outside forces, a lot of geniuses behind bitcoin and they will not let it happen.

[Daisuke]

It's not about the power of hardware. It is based on the code on blockchain where you have to gain access into it. I think hacking bitcoin will not likely to happen as we know the technology of blockchain you can be traced as it is the use of blockchain, to trace transactions.

[mk4]

Let me avoid the technical aspects to make things easy for all readers.

So someone said that America's NSA has this great computer(quantum computer) that could easily hack Bitcoin private keys. I really doubt his claim but I know for sure that certain computers  like the most powerful Super Computers are within the reach of some of this Intelligence organizations.
Do you think such computers can crack any security codes put in place to make Bitcoin very secure?

The thing is, on paper, everything is hack-able. But when talking about hacking(or brute forcing in this situation) bitcoin private keys, I think it will take a very VERY long time for them to be able to score a private key. Were talking about long enough for multiple generations of people to die and be born.

[bamboylee]

I think this was already discussed before and even quantum computers are not powerful enough to brute force a private key from a public key. I am not familiar with the math but this is what I read before. And in terms of hacking, people is still the weakest link. Just do a social hack on the person if you want to steal his bitcoin. It is way cheaper.

[CARrency]

I think this was already discussed before and even quantum computers are not powerful enough to brute force a private key from a public key. I am not familiar with the math but this is what I read before. And in terms of hacking, people is still the weakest link. Just do a social hack on the person if you want to steal his bitcoin. It is way cheaper.

That is right, also, bitcoin is the digital currency, what you might want to hack is the blockchain where the actions always occur, I mean the transactions of bitcoin was always happening. It was told that even a thousand super computers was used to hack the blockchain, it will not be enough. I think in the next hundred years, people will be able to hack and edit their bitcoins.

[Juggy777]

Let me avoid the technical aspects to make things easy for all readers.

So someone said that America's NSA has this great computer(quantum computer) that could easily hack Bitcoin private keys. I really doubt his claim but I know for sure that certain computers  like the most powerful Super Computers are within the reach of some of this Intelligence organizations.
Do you think such computers can crack any security codes put in place to make Bitcoin very secure?

No! It's as simple as that. Firstly the Super Computer was not built yesterday, it's been there since a long time now, and if it could not attack it in its inception days, then it cannot do so now, that it's grown even stronger and better. The technology may be hacked, but Bitcoins never. Have you ever heard of them being hacked, I don't think I have heard so far or else no one would ever use them.

[maku]

First of all, bitcoin network reached 7 million TH/s and its computing power is above any other single supercomputer we have on earth.
Just to give you some prospect of how powerful bitcoin network is, here is article - The Bitcoin Network is 11000x Faster than the Top 500 Supercomputers Combined:
http://jasondrowley.com/2015/12/04/the-bitcoin-network-is-11000x-faster-than-the-top-500-supercomputers-combined/
Just note, the article is from 2015, since that time we had a tremendous rise of hashing power.

[Humanxlemming]

Well bitcoin right now has a great stronghold where it is protected. It has its private key so that it is so protected and no one will ever knock it down. Well if that computer you are talking about is great and can hack bitcoin keys well i think it is just a form of business. So that people who are using bitcoin will be afraid and buy that special computer just for us to secure our own wallets.

[lizardbtc]

Let me avoid the technical aspects to make things easy for all readers.

So someone said that America's NSA has this great computer(quantum computer) that could easily hack Bitcoin private keys. I really doubt his claim but I know for sure that certain computers  like the most powerful Super Computers are within the reach of some of this Intelligence organizations.
Do you think such computers can crack any security codes put in place to make Bitcoin very secure?

Of course it can if it generates your key pair... I think that they could and can. But still the question is how many years will they need. I still believe that it will take at least 50+ years, or I underestimate their computers.

It's not about the power of hardware. It is based on the code on blockchain where you have to gain access into it. I think hacking bitcoin will not likely to happen as we know the technology of blockchain you can be traced as it is the use of blockchain, to trace transactions.

Do you know anything about private keys and public addresses within bitcoin protocol? Yes it is hard to change the transactions but I think that this guy asks about the private keys. We all know that they are generated randomly and because of it (because there are to many combinations) for regular computer it can take a lot of years to go through all private keys which makes it to not be worth trying at all. But on other hand if you have quantum computer or even some really strong super computer you can start to guess randomly keys and you could end up with an address with coins that are related to it. More info https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/2847/how-long-would-it-take-a-large-computer-to-crack-a-private-key

[ranochigo]

^^ Wow at the amount of bullshit posted there.

So someone said that America's NSA has this great computer(quantum computer) that could easily hack Bitcoin private keys. I really doubt his claim but I know for sure that certain computers  like the most powerful Super Computers are within the reach of some of this Intelligence organizations.
Do you think such computers can crack any security codes put in place to make Bitcoin very secure?

Yes in theory but not for now. The Shor's algorithm makes is possible for quantum computer to bruteforce the Bitcoin private key from the bitcoin public key. This puts those with reused address or with P2PK transactions at risk. However, up till now, no one has even got close to creating a quantum computer that is possible to bruteforce the private key with less difficulty.

No. Quantum computing will not be able to bruteforce private keys significantly faster nor mine faster or create a SHA256 collision.

[dimastegar]

Everything goes back to the Super Computer user. If the user knows the code to hack Bitcoin security, then it will happen. And vice versa. As well as we know the computer is just a useless tool without the user.

[Ucy]

I think this was already discussed before and even quantum computers are not powerful enough to brute force a private key from a public key. I am not familiar with the math but this is what I read before. And in terms of hacking, people is still the weakest link. Just do a social hack on the person if you want to steal his bitcoin. It is way cheaper.

That is right, also, bitcoin is the digital currency, what you might want to hack is the blockchain where the actions always occur, I mean the transactions of bitcoin was always happening.
It was told that even a thousand super computers was used to hack the blockchain, it will not be enough. I think in the next hundred years, people will be able to hack and edit their bitcoins.

     


WOW. Mind blowing stuff. Hope this is true.

[eternalgloom]

This kinda fits   Source: https://xkcd.com/538/

You really have to wonder if it is cost effective to do so. The value of Bitcoin would drop to zero if this was possible, what do they have to gain?
Unless it was a government effectivily trying to destroy Bitcoin ofc.

[Gorgonio]

This kinda fits   Source: https://xkcd.com/538/

You really have to wonder if it is cost effective to do so. The value of Bitcoin would drop to zero if this was possible, what do they have to gain?
Unless it was a government effectivily trying to destroy Bitcoin ofc.

Yes, unless the government wants to destroy the bitcoin financial system

[aesma]

Right now I don't think so, but I strongly believe that Bitcoin will have to evolve to avoid being vulnerable in the next decades. The problem is that there would be a need to orphan coins at some date. Coins that have not be moved to newer BTC addresses with a stronger hash would have to be excluded, unless it's a small amount (a few percent at most).

[Invigiator]

Good God!

Quantum computers can hack bitcoin. They're just not big enough yet. When they become big enough they will be able to hack most conventional cryptography ... this is an issue on a scale that completely dwarfs cryptocurrencies, so:

1) if/when quantum computers approach the size to crack bitcoin, we will all see it coming years and years ahead of time
2) you can be sure that if it's possible to protect from quantum attacks, e.g. by having some small contribution from quantum hashing power on the network, then it will be implemented in time
3) this is not even a bitcoin issue, it's an everything issue, so it's like worrying if worldwide all out nuclear war will disrupt the bitcoin network ... yes, probably, but nobody will care

[audaciousbeing]

First of all, bitcoin network reached 7 million TH/s and its computing power is above any other single supercomputer we have on earth.
Just to give you some prospect of how powerful bitcoin network is, here is article - The Bitcoin Network is 11000x Faster than the Top 500 Supercomputers Combined:
http://jasondrowley.com/2015/12/04/the-bitcoin-network-is-11000x-faster-than-the-top-500-supercomputers-combined/
Just note, the article is from 2015, since that time we had a tremendous rise of hashing power.

Of all the responses so far, this I found most explanatory and its also boost my confidence in bitcoin in which I am sure if the current cappacity of the available computer can hack bitcoin, I am sure they would have attempted that. For the future, in which we all dont know yet, I am also optimistic that as at that time, its either there is an upgrade to the security apparatus of bitcoin or a mass adoption that any attempt to shut it down might disrupt the world order.

[Xavofat]

The cryptography standard ECRYPT-II regards Bitcoin to be safe until at least 2030-2040.  I doubt that even by that time, quantum computers of that speed would be accessible to the general public.

If you use a different address for each transaction, the attacker would have to find your key in the time between when the transaction is sent and when it's confirmed.  That would make it even harder.

As Bitcoin Wiki points out:

A new public-key algorithm can be added to Bitcoin as a softfork. From the end-user perspective, this would appear as the creation of a new address type, and everyone would need to send their bitcoins to this new address type to achieve quantum security.

Because basic security for users' funds is an extremely high priority for everyone using BTC, consensus would be reached for this soft fork extremely easily and it would get implemented.