As quantum computing research continues, the encryption industry begins to discuss more seriously a long-term issue: How to migrate the existing digital asset system to the new encryption programme before a sufficiently powerful quantum computer appears. The process is referred to by industry as “large-scale quantum migration”.
Assets in excess of $2 trillion affected
Currently, a large number of digital assets still rely on elliptical curve encryption to prove ownership and sign transactions. The system has long been considered to be sufficiently safe in the traditional computing environment, as the number of calculations required to break the private key is extremely high.
According to Christopher Smith, co-founder and CEO of Quantus, over $2 trillion of digital assets are protected by this type of encryption, which is close to the total market value of the entire encrypted market. Google researchers have previously suggested that the computing resources required to attack such encryption may be lower than previously estimated.
Wallet and management key are more focused
Smith believes that large bitcoin wallets could be a clear target. He cited, for example, Binance ' s bitcoin cold wallet holdings of over $10 billion. By contrast, the USDT management key is considered to be a more sensitive link, as it relates to the control of stable currency issuance.
He indicated that, once such keys had been broken, the shock might not be confined to a single asset, but could also spill over into the DeFi agreement, which relied on the liquidity of a stable currency. Coinbase, however, indicated to Fortune that the whole encrypted ecology could not be considered as equally vulnerable and that there was a real need to focus more on the risk of exposure at the wallet level.
It's hard to move with industry.
Google has suggested that, around 2029, encryption systems should gradually move away from encryption programmes that are susceptible to quantum attacks. The National Institute of Standards and Technology of the United States has also promoted the standardization of late quantum codes by giving alternative algorithms.
In Coinbase ' s view, adding antiquant signatures to the block chain itself is a solventable engineering problem, and even more difficult is how to land the move, especially for those assets that were not moved in time. Its independent Quantum Advisory Board had recently issued a report on the disposal of legacy addresses and abandoned assets.
A number of agencies have begun to prepare
Such upgrades are distinct from the use of centralized services to replace encryption. Even if the developer completes the upgrade of the agreement, the user may not be able to move the asset if the exchange does not support it; if the wallet does not follow up, the risk on the old address will remain.
Coinbase is currently one of the founding members of the Bitcoin Security Alliance. Its members include BlackRock, Fidelity Digital Assemblys, Black, Blackstream and Strategy. Coinbase also indicated that financial and engineering support was being provided for quantum safety-related development, including proposals such as BIP-360 and a study of the back quantum transport path.