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Ripple Head of Research Aanchal Malhotra has weighed in on the recent quantum computing debate in the crypto sector.
In a March 31 blog post, Google Researchers said a future quantum computer could break elliptic-curve cryptography, a form of public-key encryption technique used across much of the market.
Future quantum computers may be able to break some of the cryptography protecting Bitcoin and other digital assets with fewer resources than previously thought, adding urgency to the debate over how the industry should prepare.
The paper comes as a warning meant to give the industry time to act, not as a prediction of imminent collapse.
Ripple head of research weighs in
In a tweet, Malhotra reflects on the insight shared by Google, explaining why the quantum deadline has moved up to 2029.
"Google Quantum AI just gave us a clearer picture of why they set their post-quantum migration deadline to 2029," the Ripple Head of Research wrote.
Last week, Google introduced a timeline to fully migrate its own security systems to post-quantum cryptography by 2029.
"Google found a significantly improved quantum algorithm for breaking elliptic curves. They’re not publishing it—they validated the result using a zero-knowledge proof. You can verify it without seeing the attack," Malhotra said, adding that this alone is worth sitting with.
The Ripple research head went on to share resource estimates, highlighting that 500,000 physical qubits are needed to solve ECDLP-256 on superconducting hardware, which is about a 20x reduction from previous work. This produces a runtime in minutes.
The good news is that no wallets are getting cracked tomorrow, but the trendline is compressing faster than most of the industry is prepared for, Malhotra added.
While not currently fully quantum-proof, XRP Ledger is laying the foundation for future upgrades to protect against potential future threats. Last December, the XRPL Alpha testnet (AlphaNet) integrated Dilithium-based cryptography, which marks a starting phase for building quantum resistance.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
Vladislav Sopov
