Improving Cryptocurrency with Google’s Breakthrough
Researcher: Google Quantum Breakthrough Could Improve Proof-of-Stake
Excerpts and salient points ~
+ Previously, ex-Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd poured cold water on fears that recent advances in quantum computing could endanger the security of Bitcoin (BTC) — which is a proof-of-work-based cryptocurrency. Todd concluded that financial impediments alone would keep Bitcoin free from potential trouble.
The application of Google’s quantum computing technology could purportedly help improve the technology which underpins proof-of-stake (PoS) cryptocurrencies.
+ PoS is a type of consensus algorithm where block creators are randomly chosen with probability proportional to their stake, while the algorithm of proof-of-work-based digital currencies uses mining. However, the PoS variant has raised doubts regarding the integrity of random selections.
+ Scott Aaronson, a quantum theoretician at the University of Texas at Austin, told Fortune on Oct. 23 that quantum computing could assuage PoS-skeptics doubts, as a quantum supremacy experiment could generate certifiably random numbers. He previously wrote on his personal blog:“A sampling-based quantum supremacy experiment could almost immediately be repurposed to generate bits that can be proven to be random to a skeptical third party (under computational assumptions). This, in turn, has possible applications to proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies and other cryptographic protocols. I’m hopeful that more such applications will be discovered in the near future.”
Source: COINTELEGRAPH. Ana Alexandre, Researcher: Google Quantum Breakthrough Could Improve Proof-of-Stake…
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