Like Y2K: Will quantum computing be the end of cryptocurrencies? – Sydney Morning Herald

In 2012, when you heard about the wonders of blockchain technology, did you go and buy a big chunk of Bitcoin? Are you now obscenely wealthy?

I did not. Its funny, I got so wrapped up in the value of the underlying technology, I kind of forgot to invest in that part of it.

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin rely on encryption methods that could easily be cracked by a quantum computer.Credit:Getty

Mores the pity. What exactly does Accentures blockchain division do?

We serve Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies, so we are constantly working with different industries and going through a very deliberate approach of evaluating how Web3 is impactful for each individual and each industry. Where will the value come from? What are those killer use cases? What clients are best positioned to go after these killer use cases?

We have a dedicated digital currency team thats working with central banks on bank-issued stable coins and central bank digital currency. We have a digital asset markets team fully focused on the modernisation of capital markets. Ive got a supply chain team thats working on using this technology to bring together order to cash [i.e. all business processes related to a sale] and procure to pay [business processes related to procurement from suppliers] and trade finance and logistics. We have all of these components that together form the ingredients for metaverse experiences.

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When youre working with these Fortune 500 companies, is there a certain area of Web3 theyre most interested in?

Industry by industry, there are unique dimensions. With every one of our product company clients were now working with them to think through, do you have a valid digitally native product taking advantage of this tokenisation capability [ability to convert digital products into blockchain assets]? And then similarly, do you have an augmented reality version of your product and do you have a strategy there?

Then there are very industry-specific plays like the redefinition of money and financial services and the emergence of new payment rails, and what money for the metaverse will look like. And then you have these interesting dynamics like supply chains for digitally native products. You need to be able to effectively custody and transport things. Each industry has its own unique dimension to it.

Are there parts of the broader Web3 industry you think wont be around in five years time, or parts that will fail to find an actual use case?

If we look at non-fungible tokens (NFTs) versus fungible tokens, theres this unhelpful focus on what is too frequently a get-rich-quick scheme, all these NFTs with artificial scarcity. If a company only creates ten NFTs of a product because they want a big marketing splash and a wild valuation for them, to me, thats not nearly as interesting as getting your brand to show up everywhere.

Everything that currently exists right now will need to be retrofitted. And that is a big, big job.

Instead, companies should be making millions of fungible tokens and selling them each for $2.99 because I want everyone to be wearing my branded shoe, hat, whatever it is, as they show up in the metaverse.

We just need to move past this artificial scarcity, wild valuation moment and really think through the utility of what digitally native and digitally augmented products will create.

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Youve also got some expertise in the quantum computing space. I know its early stages, but when we have fully functional quantum computers, what does that mean for the security of the blockchain, considering that quantum computers will be able to easily crack modern encryption that things like Bitcoin rely on?

The advancement of quantum does challenge our existing encryption, just as you described, but every advancement is as applicable to offence as it is defence. For anything new that were building now, were already very much considering what the post-quantum cryptography requirements will be. The standards for that are just now emerging.

However, everything that currently exists right now will need to be retrofitted. And that is a big, big job. Its a bit trite to say, but I do equate it to the whole Y2K issue.

But with Y2K, we had the benefit of a known date and a known fix. The challenge we have now is that we dont know when that quantum supremacy will be achieved to break the current RSA encryption. A lot of work has to go into that and so our advice to clients is to get started on that work straight away.

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The major cornerstones of crypto - Bitcoin and Ethereum - arent quantum-proof. How confident are you that theyll achieve that in the timeframes they need to?

We think theres real urgency around being prepared. If good guys develop it first, they will announce it. If a bad actor is the first one to get there, Im not sure theyre going to announce that, instead well just start to see the impacts of it. So getting ready is super important.

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Like Y2K: Will quantum computing be the end of cryptocurrencies? - Sydney Morning Herald