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Comment by trident5000 | Hacker News Reader

Vitalik Buterin himself said sha256 is likely not hackable by quantum computing, certainly not any time soon. If it is then consensus or a fork is needed to change the security.

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Just because he developed ethereum doesn't mean he has any idea what is going on in quantum computing. Whatever we've seen out of the private sector in terms of quantum computing is a total joke in the context of black budget NSA programs.

Nobody knows except the people doing it.

The whole field of quantum computer science would like a word. It's possible to predict what quantum computers will and won't be able to do.

Not really. There are no proofs that SHA can't be broken by efficient classical means, let alone quantum means. Once the incentive is there people will start looking harder.

Quantum computing is not incalculable. Solving sha256 by traditional means would need the energy of the sun. Quantum will only further the goal by so much. And Vitalik didnt just invent ethereum he was/is a cryptography expert who wrote many publications.

Quantum is not just faster, it changes the problem from being sub-exponential to logarithmic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shor%27s_algorithm

not sha256

Wow not a crypto founder himself. He wouldn’t have a conflict of interest would he?

Vitalik is not only extremely smart, has many times demonstrated his abilities, but has also shown himself to be incredibly honest and straight-forward kind of guy when it comes to public utterances. Can you find even a couple of times when he has misled or lied to the public, even a bout a small thing? He comments on technical issues and engineering problems, things he knows a thing or two about.

He once tried to sell investors on using a classical computer to simulate a quantum computer to mine Bitcoin faster [1]. Granted, this was before Ethereum.

> He comments on technical issues and engineering problems, things he knows a thing or two about.

He still doesn't seem to truly understand BFT [2].

[1] https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/buterins-quantum-quest/

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25984251

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