Abstract
This paper studies the effect of quantum computers on Bitcoin mining. The shift in computational paradigm towards quantum computation allows the entire search space of the golden nonce to be queried at once by exploiting quantum superpositions and entanglement. Using Grover’s algorithm, a solution can be extracted in time , where t is the target value for the nonce. This is better using a square root over the classical search algorithm that requires tries. If sufficiently large quantum computers are available for the public, mining activity in the classical sense becomes obsolete, as quantum computers always win. Without considering quantum noise, the size of the quantum computer needs to be qubits.
Highlights
Cryptocurrencies challenge the validity of modern monetary theory, which says that the legal ordinances supported by a government are necessary to gain the acceptance and trust of a currency by the people [1]
This paper explores a narrow direction, namely, the effect that large quantum computers will have on Bitcoin mining and possibly the entire
We have shown in this paper that the arrival of large quantum computers poses a significant challenge to the Bitcoin Blockchain
Summary
Cryptocurrencies challenge the validity of modern monetary theory, which says that the legal ordinances supported by a government are necessary to gain the acceptance and trust of a currency by the people [1]. Nonces appear in the block header and in a leaf of the Merkle tree. The basic algorithmic approach for mining nonces remains the same: search the nonce values space by trying out possible nonces, either in a predetermined order or in some randomized order. Use of Grover’s search algorithm adds to the search’s complexity, a term on the order of N, where N is the size of the search space. Well-sized quantum computers would consistently outperform classical hardware in search of golden nonces. The algorithm has five steps that follow the logical flow of the mining process Most of these steps rely on both classical and quantum information.
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