DUBLIN, Oct. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ The report "The Quantum Threat to Blockchain: Emerging Business Opportunities" has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This new research report identifies not only the challenges, but alsothe opportunities in terms of new products and services that arise fromthe threat that quantum computers pose to the "blockchain" mechanism.According to a recent study by the consulting firm Deloitte,approximately one-fourth of the blockchain-based cybercurrency Bitcoin in circulation in 2022 is vulnerable to quantum attack.

The analyst foresees major commercial opportunities arising toprotect blockchain against future quantum computer intrusions and agreeswith the White House National Security Memorandum NSM-10, released on May 04, 2022,which indicates the urgency of addressing imminent quantum computingthreats and the risks they present to the economy and to nationalsecurity in the latest report "The Quantum Threat to Blockchain: Emerging Business Opportunities".

Although the main focus of this report is on the quantum threat tothe integrity of cybercurrencies, the applicability of blockchain (andtherefore the threat of quantum) is much broader than the newer types ofmoney. Blockchain technology has been proposed for a wide range oftransactions, including insurance, real estate, voting, supply chaintracking, gambling, etc.

A quantum computer-compromised blockchain would allow eavesdropping,unauthorized client authentication, signed malware, cloak-in encryptedsession, a man-in-the-middle attack (MITM), forged documents, andemails. These attacks can lead to mission-critical operationsdisruption, reputation, and trust damage, as well as loss ofintellectual property, financial assets, and regulated data. Note thatthis report covers both technical and policy issues relating to thequantum vulnerability of blockchain.

As things stand now, blockchains are secured with relativelygarden-variety encryption schemes. However, quantum computers will havethe computational power to break these schemes as they grow in power.Predictions of when quantum computers will attain such power vary fromfive years to never, but, the threat hangs over the cryptocurrency industry as a whole and is a dampener to its prospects.

Quantum computers directly threaten classical public-key/private keycryptography blockchain technologies because they can break thecomputational security assumptions of elliptic curve cryptography. Theyalso significantly weaken the security of critical private key or hashfunction algorithms, which protect the blockchain's secrets.

Also, some of the early expenditures on quantum-safe technology inthe cybercurrency market will undoubtedly go to protecting data fromattacks later, when quantum computing resources become mature. Thisissue becomes more important as we grow closer to the day when powerfulquantum computers become a reality. But preemptive action on the quantumthreat means that the business opportunities in this space are emergingright now.

As this report makes clear, the publisher sees major commercialopportunities to protect blockchain and the technologies dependent onblockchain against future quantum computer intrusions. One area thatthis report focuses on especially is post-quantum encryption (PQC), inwhich relatively traditional encryption schemes are devised that aresimply much harder to break than currently used encryption schemes. WithNIST announcing a new set of PQC standards in July 2022,the publisher believes that PQC firms will be receiving majorinvestments in the near term as a result of the growing concerns aboutbad actors with access to quantum computing resources.

The publisher believes there is also a need for relatively low-costinformation-theoretically secure (ITS) solutions that instantlystrengthen standardized cryptography systems used in blockchains. Thus,this report also discusses quantum-enabled blockchain architecturesbased on Quantum Random Number Generators (QRNG) and Quantum KeyDistribution (QKD).

Key Highlights:

Key Topics Covered:

Chapter One: Introduction1.1 Objective and Scope of this Report1.1.1 The Threat of Quantum Computers to Blockchain1.2 Cryptography Background to this Report1.2.1 Concerned Organizations1.2.2 NIST PQC Efforts and Beyond1.2.3 Addressable Market for Quantum-safe Cybercurrency1.3 The Goals of this Report

Chapter Two: Classical Blockchain Cryptography and Quantum Computing Attacks2.1 Overview of the Quantum Threat2.2 NIST and Post-quantum Cryptography2.2.1 Structure of the NIST PQC Effort2.2.2 Importance of Asymmetric Digital Signatures2.2.3 Impact of Doubling Key Size2.2.4 Algorithm Security Strength2.3 Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)2.4 Quantum Attack Resources Estimates to Break ECC and DSA2.5 Quantum Resistant Cryptography for Blockchains2.5.1 Taproot and Bitcoin Core2.5.2 Impact of NIST-based PQC Algorithms2.6 Post-quantum Random Oracle Model2.6.1 Modeling Random Oracles for Quantum Attackers2.7 Summary of this Chapter

Chapter Three: Quantum Opportunities of the Blockchain Kind3.1 Blockchain Basics3.1.1 What are Classical Blockchains?3.2 Quantum-Enabled Blockchain3.2.1 Role of Quantum-safe Security Technologies3.3 Blockchain Security3.3.1 Role of Conventional Cryptography3.3.2 Attacks on Classical Cryptography3.3.2.1 Some Known Attacks Against ECDSA3.3.2.2 ECDSA Key Pair Generation:3.3.2.3 Signature Computation:3.3.2.4 Recommendations:3.3.2.5 Blockchain Security Summary:3.4 Mitigating Cyberattacks on Blockchains3.5 Blockchain Security: Entropy/Randomness3.5.1 Examples of Low Entropy Attacks3.6 Random Number Generator Product Evolution3.6.1 PRNGs3.6.2 TRNGs3.6.3 QRNGs3.6.4 OpenSSL 3.03.7 Summary of this Chapter

Chapter Four: Quantum Impacts on the Cryptocurrency Business4.1 Qubit and Quantum Gates4.1.1 Qubits4.1.2 Quantum Gates4.1.3 Quantum Fourier Transform4.1.4 Oracle4.1.5 Amplitude Amplification4.2 Quantum Algorithms4.2.1 Shor's Algorithm4.3 Specific Quantum Threat to Blockchains4.3.1 Risk of Quantum Attack in Authentication4.3.2 Grover's Algorithm and Hashing4.4 Risk of Quantum Attack in Mining4.5 Nonce Attacks4.6 Blockchain Data Structures4.7 Summary of this Chapter

Chapter Five: Quantum Hash and QKD5.1 Classical to Quantum Hashing Functions5.1.1 Summary: Quantum Hashing Functions5.2 Quantum Key Distribution (QKD)5.2.1 Technical Issues5.2.2 Issues Needing Work in Blockchain Enabled QKD5.2.2.1 Summary: QKD Technical Issues and Blockchain Integration5.2.2.2 Software-defined Networking QKD and Blockchain5.3 Notes on Interface Protocols5.3.1 Southbound Interface5.3.2 Northbound Interface Protocol5.3.3 Resource Allocation5.4 Steps Blockchain Organizations Can Take Now5.5 Summary of this Chapter

About the Publisher

About the Analyst

Acronyms and Abbreviations Used In this Report

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/lh4alo

SOURCE: Research and Markets

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New Research Report Predicts Blockchain and Quantum Threat Will Quickly Spread Beyond Cybercurrencies; Surge in New Product and Services Opportunities...