Quantum Readiness

What does Quantum Readiness mean?

The ability to transition smoothly to more secure encryption keys for the quantum computing age.

Main Idea:

Blockchain security is based on Public-Private Key encryption (PPK). Each account is controlled by the private key of a public-private key pair. From the user’s side, a user must know the specific private key of an account in order to sign a request from that account.

From the blockchain protocol’s side, every transaction request is automatically checked to determine whether it is signed by the private-key associated with its originating account. If it is, the signature is considered valid and the request moves through the rest of the validation process. If not, the request is automatically rejected.

Notice the protocol does not know the real world identity of the holder of the key. It only checks the key is correctly associated with the account. The warning here is, if you share your key to an account and someone else uses it to sign a transaction, the protocol will not know the difference and will allow the transaction to move on. Thus, sharing your key raises the risk someone will drain your account.

Quantum-computing reduces the time it takes to break PPK encryption.

When quantum computing becomes available, currently used (relatively short) encryption keys will provide weaker security. This is because quantum computing confers a quadratic advantage in breaking most existing forms of symmetric encryption. For example, if it takes a digital computer 2³² = 4.3 billion guesses, it would only take a quantum computer 2^(32/4) = 2⁸ =256 guesses.

Without quantum computing, it would take years to guess the key to your account. With quantum computing, today’s keys can be guessed easily so those keys can no longer be used to secure your account.

Future-proofing at Geeq:

Quantum-resistant encryption protocols will require much larger keys for both symmetric and asymmetric encryption. The keys will be at least several times longer than what are standard at present. Quantum-resistant encryption methods are also much more computationally intensive.

Geeq’s validation protocols provide security at low resource costs. Thinking ahead to security in a quantum computing age guides how Geeq blockchains’ network of networks is developed today.

Used in a Sentence:

Geeq’s blockchain ecosystem is designed from the start to provide smooth upgrade paths for all blockchain-based services, including the transition to more secure, quantum-ready keys.

Last Updated: March 10, 2024