On September 2nd, Steve Tippeconnic, developer and expert at IBM Quantum Computing, published a study that guaranteed that digital signatures could be broken based on a 6-bit elliptic curve (ECC, an English acronym).
That’s about The key size is much lower When used in current systems such as Bitcoin (256 bit), this experiment represents related advances by demonstrating that quantum attacks using SHOR algorithm variants can be applied.
In Tippeconnic’s words, “The key size is small, but the results show the feasibility of quantum attacks Shor-Style With actual hardware ».
Actual quantum attacks
To specify “attack” I used a 133 qubit IBM_TORINO processor.
The purpose of the experiment was to find a secret key called “K” from the public equations used in elliptic curve encryption (Q = KP).
You can imagine someone reaching their destination on the map, but they don’t reveal the exact distance they toured to reach it. The experimental task was fair I guess that hidden distance From the final visible position.
As explained in Tippeconnic, quantum circuits produced special mathematical interference that allowed them to approach their hidden values.
To achieve this, the system was run 16,384 times, thousands. As a result, drawing was performed on the “screen” of Quantum Fourier Transform (QFT). This is a tool that converts signals to frequencies, similar to breaking down songs with different notes.
The circuit was very complicated (it has over 340,000 chain steps), The results showed a clear pattern. After applying additional analysis in a classical way, it was discovered that the secret key is the number 42, one of the most relevant values to the results.
The importance of experiments does not exist in broken key size (only 6 bits, working size in real applications), Proof that quantum attacks can actually be realized.
These 256 Bitcoin Bitkeys are currently impossible to violate through classical computing. However, IBM’s work reflects that as quantum computing is enhanced. Current encryption schemes can be at risk.