Quantum advantage on proof of work

IF 2.3 Q2 COMPUTER SCIENCE, THEORY & METHODS

Array Pub Date : 2022-09-01 DOI:10.1016/j.array.2022.100225

Dan A. Bard, Joseph J. Kearney, Carlos A. Perez-Delgado

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Proof-of-Work (PoW) is a fundamental underlying technology behind most major blockchain cryptocurrencies. It has been previously pointed out that quantum devices provide a computational advantage in performing PoW in the context of Bitcoin. Here we make the case that this quantum advantage extends not only to all existing PoW mechanisms, but to any possible PoW as well. This has strong consequences regarding both quantum-based attacks on the integrity of the entirety of the blockchain, as well as more legitimate uses of quantum computation for the purpose of mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. For the first case, we estimate when these quantum attacks will become feasible, for various cryptocurrencies, and discuss the impact of such attacks. For the latter, we derive a precise formula to calculate the economic incentive for switching to quantum-based cryptocurrency miners. Using this formula, we analyze several test scenarios, and conclude that investing in quantum hardware for cryptocurrency mining has the potential to pay off immensely.

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工作量证明的量子优势

工作量证明(PoW)是大多数主要加密货币背后的基本底层技术。之前已经指出，量子设备在比特币的背景下提供了执行PoW的计算优势。在这里，我们提出这种量子优势不仅可以扩展到所有现有的PoW机制，还可以扩展到任何可能的PoW。这对基于量子的攻击整个区块链的完整性以及更合法地使用量子计算来挖掘比特币和其他加密货币都产生了强烈的影响。对于第一种情况，我们估计这些量子攻击何时对各种加密货币变得可行，并讨论此类攻击的影响。对于后者，我们推导了一个精确的公式来计算转向基于量子的加密货币矿工的经济激励。使用这个公式，我们分析了几个测试场景，并得出结论，投资用于加密货币挖掘的量子硬件有可能获得巨大回报。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Array Computer Science-General Computer Science

CiteScore

4.40

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

45 days