Bitcoin 'hacked'?

[Don Pedro Dinero]

I wanted to ask those who know a lot more about this than I do because I've just seen a piece of news claiming bitcoin has been hacked. I will translate the article for you:

In just 320 seconds: Bitcoin hacked with first-ever quantum attack
Chinese researchers crack Bitcoin's encryption using quantum computing

A group of scientists in China has reached an unprecedented milestone by using quantum computing to compromise the security of Bitcoin in just 320 seconds. The breakthrough has raised alarm bells about the vulnerability of cryptocurrencies to emerging technologies.

The researchers used an 18-qubit quantum computer to break the elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA), which is widely used in Bitcoin to ensure the integrity and authenticity of transactions. This achievement suggests that, with the continued development of quantum computing, the private keys of Bitcoin wallets could be at risk, potentially allowing the theft of funds without the owners' consent, as Carlos López Iglesias, director of Ekade, explains in a post on his LinkedIn profile.
Community reactions and preventive measures

The Bitcoin developer community has not remained indifferent. Various strategies are being discussed to shield the network against possible quantum attacks. Among the proposals is the implementation of post-quantum cryptography algorithms, designed to withstand the capabilities of quantum computers. These measures aim to ensure that, even as this technology advances, Bitcoin's security remains intact.

Now, this seems to me that, if it has really been hacked as the article seems to say, it is an isolated thing and we should not get nervous thinking that our bitcoins are going to be stolen tomorrow, besides the community had already been thinking about this for some time and the same technology that allows you to do this in principle will allow you to protect yourself.

Am I on the right track?

Also, I wonder if today's price drop has anything to do with it.

[LoyceV]

I'm not going to believe unknown sites for this. If they want to be convincing, choose a rich Bitcoin address, and sign a message.

I'm not really worried about Bitcoin being broken by quantum computing. If that's possible, all online banking and other encryption would be at risk, which has a much larger impact on everything globally.

[bitbollo]

there is nothing online in other news related this.
if this is something true, I would see many more highlights online...
I would have some doubts about the ones mentioned in this article. http://www.ekadeauditores.com/ ... who they are? why there is nothing around bitcoin? if they now such news why there is nothing online?

Here there is the original post ... and it's a clear clickbait with an AI image on it.
https://es.linkedin.com/posts/carlos-lopez-iglesias-7524041b0_hackear-bitcoin-quantumcomputing-activity-7302398440926244864-LC8t

So they have the news "an impressive news" and no link or whatever? how he is the only one that has this great insight?

...
I'm not really worried about Bitcoin being broken by quantum computing. If that's possible, all online banking and other encryption would be at risk, which has a much larger impact on everything globally.

Yes absolutely. Bitcoin is a tiny element compared to other economic elements. in the same time (since it's "audited every 10 minutes") if something would be real, price will just collapse in matter of hours.

[Frankolala]

Another FUD to make people panic and sell due to FOMO. I don't think this is true, because the news should have been everywhere in the internet and on TV. Bitcoin community knows about the threat of quantum computers to bitcoin security but before such will happen bitcoin devs will find a solution to it.

[DireWolfM14]

Sounds to like the news in and of itself is the attempted hack.  Someone trying to create FUD in order pick up some cheap sats.

[logfiles]

Careful... people are always looking for creative ways to get hits on their vague articles. Most of the time they don't care if it's legitimate or not, so long as they go viral. If it were true by even a fraction, things would be so different right now. Trust me.

LinkedIn sucks. Glad I deleted my account years ago 

[Stalker22]

If quantum computers could actually break Bitcoin's encryption already, it would likely be major headline news across the internet.  Quantum computing does pose a potential systemic threat to encryption in the future, but its not an imminent danger that can break Bitcoin's security right now imho.  I agree we should view bold claims from unreliable sources with skepticism.  Theres a lot of misinformation out there.  But no need to panic yet about quantum computers and Bitcoin.

[TryNinja]

Googled about Quantum computers breaking ECDSA and there are no news about this. Fake article?

Worst I found was a piece “would microsoft’s new state of matter be a threat to Bitcoin consensus?” and it’s all speculation about the new tech which isn’t even commercially ready yet.

[nc50lc]

Here there is the original post ... and it's a clear clickbait with an AI image on it.
-snip-

The funny thing is, it said "encryption algorithm in Bitcoin" while talking about ECDSA which is a Digital Signature Algorithm.

Also by saying "decrypting the private keys of wallets" in that context, that is a big takeaway that whoever wrote this doesn't know how Bitcoin works.
It even hints that the author is someone who calls an address: "wallet".

It's a good thing that the majority of comments already recognized the LinkedIn post as hoax.

[ABCbits]

If vozpopuli dot com have account on this forum, i would leave them neutral feedback for linking website with garbage technical detail.

Here there is the original post ... and it's a clear clickbait with an AI image on it.
-snip-

The funny thing is, it said "encryption algorithm in Bitcoin" while talking about ECDSA which is a Digital Signature Algorithm.

Also by saying "decrypting the private keys of wallets" in that context, that is a big takeaway that whoever wrote this doesn't know how Bitcoin works.
It even hints that the author is someone who calls an address: "wallet".

It's a good thing that the majority of comments already recognized the LinkedIn post as hoax.

Not only that, the news claim they did it with only 18 qubits quantum computer. While there are conflicting information about minimum required qubits to crack ECSA, lowest one claim it requires 1500 qubits[1], while other says 13 million qubits[2]. Although i doubt 1500 qubits estimation is true.

[1] https://security.stackexchange.com/a/96880
[2] https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2022/02/breaking-245-bit-elliptic-curve-encryption-with-a-quantum-computer.html

[BADERO]

Am I on the right track?

 I wonder if today's price drop has anything to do with it.

As for me ,I need to evaluate the credibility of the article that you mentioned, it's from a LinkedIn post by Carlos López Iglesias , we all know that most of the time LinkedIn posts can be sensationalist or lack technical depth so the key claim here is that an 18-qubit quantum computer broke ECDSA which Bitcoin uses Quantum computing threats to Bitcoin aren't new but the specifics matter
I remember that breaking ECDSA with quantum computers requires solving the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem shor's algorithm can do this but it needs a large number of stable qubit Current quantum computers are nowhere near that IBM has a 433-qubit processor but qubit count isn't the only factor, error rates and coherence times matter too. An 18-qubit system seems too small for such a task, there is a high chance that the article oversimplified or the experiment was a simulation or a specific case

[apogio]

Quantum computers could break ECC.

If there is really a threat with quantum processors for Bitcoin, that will occur only if the public key is known.

That is because it's highly more practical for an attacker, even using a quantum computer, to solve the ECC backwards trying to derive a private key from a public key, rather than try to brute-force private keys.

But, if a UTXO hasn't been used as input in a transaction, then the public key is unknown.

In simpler terms, if the funds have never moved out of an address then the public key is not revealed.

Which means that, theoretically, sending some coins to address X and leaving the coins there, renders them unlikely to be swiped due to quantum threat.

I'm not going to believe unknown sites for this. If they want to be convincing, choose a rich Bitcoin address, and sign a message.

I'm not really worried about Bitcoin being broken by quantum computing. If that's possible, all online banking and other encryption would be at risk, which has a much larger impact on everything globally.

I agree with LoyceV in this.
According to my explanation above, the most "hackable" wallets would be the massive wallets in which exchanges keep their funds. They keep spending from those, so the public keys are revealed.

[Lucius]

There's an article from 2022 that's still relevant for anyone who fears that it's possible to hack BTC using quantum computers. What is much more important for everyone is that if it were possible to hack BTC, that would be the least of our problems - because then practically everything else would also be susceptible to hacking.

Webber’s team calculated that breaking bitcoin’s encryption in a 10-minute window would require a quantum computer with 1.9 billion qubits, while cracking it in an hour would require a machine with 317 million qubits. Even allowing for a whole day, this figure only drops to 13 million qubits.

This is reassuring news for bitcoin owners because current machines have only a tiny fraction of this – IBM’s record-breaking superconducting quantum computer has only 127 qubits, so devices would need to become a million times larger to threaten the cryptocurrency, something Webber says is unlikely to happen for a decade.

[philipma1957]

Sounds to like the news in and of itself is the attempted hack.  Someone trying to create FUD in order pick up some cheap sats.

we are now well under 80k so it is working well

[JackMazzoni]

A regular computer can simulate up to 30-50 qubits.

[She shining]

Hahaha funny Atom computing is 1180 qubit and can't perform such hack and an 18 qubit is claiming such. The highest it can be used for is scientific research not hacks.

Source to World largest quantum computer: https://www.spinquanta.com/news-detail/discover-the-worlds-largest-quantum-computer-in20250106092507#:~:text=The%20World%27s%20Largest%20Superconducting%20Quantum,a%20total%20of%201%2C121%20qubits.

we are now well under 80k so it is working well

No major news outlet shared it. I wouldn't even had knew about it if I didn't stumble upon this thread.

[Don Pedro Dinero]

Well, I could smell something like that, that's why I put hacking in inverted commas.

No major news outlet shared it. I wouldn't even had knew about it if I didn't stumble upon this thread.

Yes when I saw the article it was fresh and didn't know if more media would follow but that hasn't been the case, in some cases, they have even flatly denied it.

Thank you all for the replies, which I have found very informative.

I see no point in keeping the thread open, so I'm going to lock it.