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From my understanding, today's cryptography will be vulnerable to attacks from quantum computers soon. Are there any plans that IOG or Charles has mentioned about how Cardano will deal with the rise of quantum computing in the next few years / decade? What measures will be taken to keep the network secure and business as usual?

Thanks, Myles

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While this may be a concern in the future, there is currently no quantum computing system powerful enough to pose a threat to modern cryptographic standards. That being said, there are quantum-resistant signature schemes that can be employed if needed, such as XMSS.

There are drawbacks however; the signatures for such schemes tend to be much larger than the elliptic curve schemes currently used, which would lead to faster chain growth. As such, quantum resistant schemes can and will be deployed as soon as quantum computers pose a significant risk. Until then, they are simply unnecessary.

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  • Thanks for the reply. Waiting until it becomes a problem / poses a significant risk does not seem like IOG's style at all. How do we definitively know what Google's or IBM's quantum computer is able to do? I'm not sure we can answer that. I realize I'm thinking at least a few years into the future but that's why now's the time to start thinking about it.
    – Myles
    Commented Jan 26, 2022 at 3:59
  • I don' think IOG is really waiting for it to become a problem, they simply realize that quantum resistance is not a priority right now because there is so much else to do. Considering the conservative approach IOG tends to take when implementing new features, it makes sense that they'd hold off on something that just isn't necessary right now. Charles even mentioned in one of his AMA's (sorry I can't remember which one) that implementing quantum resistance can and will be done, just not in the next year or two.
    – zhekson
    Commented Jan 26, 2022 at 13:33

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