Will Quantum Computers Break Bitcoin? What is a Quantum Computer? - Oct 2020

We'll quantum computers break Bitcoin. We live in a world of certain uncertainty and quantum


probability. Whether or not you're dealt a 15 or a 20 at the blackjack table, or which


direction the stock market goals may very well be determined intrinsically at the quantum


level. Even after centuries of advancement, we still struggle with calculating uncertainties


and probability accurately, which was sometimes why we make bad decisions and accidents


still happen. But what if we've been approaching this problem of uncertainty the wrong


way? What if there was a way to use the quantum world where things can exist and not exist


at the same time? Parallel worlds become possible and particles at great distances can affect


each other instantaneously irrespective of distance. Could we use uncertainty at the quantum


level to transform our computational and analytical methods to usher in the next great technological


revolution? Is there a chance for quantum computers to redefine how humanity solves its problems?


Would this create some more problems in its alves? Stay tuned where we discuss the topics


of what a quantum computer is and what its implications might be to mankind, cryptography,


and of course, Bitcoin.


Hi, I'm Mike from the Quantum Resisted Ledger, where we designed the only purpose-built


open-source blockchain and cryptocurrency that's NIST-draft recommended and quantum


resistant. Today we're going to dive deep, deep into the world of quantum computers, so


prepare to have mine equals blown. Look at the index below to jump to specific topics


or just skip to the end for quantum computers explained to grandma in bullet points below.


Well, while this video is about quantum computers, some quick history will help with context.


Man has tried for centuries to understand the world in which we live. From looking up and


writing stories about the pictures that they saw on the stars to harnessing the atom for


a nuclear energy. Quantum computers, like Mother Nature, may very well be the next technological


revolution powered by the fundamental properties of Mother Nature. Abstractly the idea of


quantum computers existed for decades, since Alan Turing started exploring the question


of whether or not machines can think when the Turing machine was first proposed in 1936.


So fast forward through classical computers to the 1980s when a quantum mechanical Turing machine,


which is a primitive computer, was first proposed by Paul Bignoff in the 1980s. Discussion


at this time existed around how Mother Nature could be used to solve mankind's problems,


but no one really knew if a quantum computer could work until 1998 when the first primitive


quantum computer performed its first calculation. Growing up, I was taught in school how


the nucleus lies at the center of the atom and an electron revolves around the nucleus at


specific energy levels, which of course gave us great insight and the show quantum leap.


However, we no longer think of electrons in this way, like light, electrons behave as if they


are both a particle and a wave. Now this is a very strange to think of, for example, if we were


to equate a particle to that of a baseball, the analogy is easy to understand. But how can


a particle behave like a wave? When we frame the wave, we're actually talking about a wave


function, which is a mathematical representation of probability, not a physical wave like


you'd see at the beach, even though that it does share some of the same characteristics.


If you're able to touch it, the object would instantly turn into a particle at the moment


you measured it, saw it, touched it, whatever.


Recently, experiments have shown that this state of superposition can apply to entire


atoms as well, raising very interesting questions as to what is real and what is not.


It was likely the inspiration for the phrase if a branch falls on the forest doesn't make


a sound. Scientists are still trying to get to the root of exactly what reality is, which


is where the quantum world of mathematical probability ends and the macroscopic world


that we see and touch starts. The point is uncertainty is a fundamental part of what makes


a pause and our lives. Enter the quantum computer, so what is some interesting about quantum


computing? Quantum computer's work in terms of probability. This means that it gives


probabilistic answers. In computer class, you might have learned about binary code using


bits. If use is either a zero or a one in order to process information. However, a quantum


computer uses a probabilistic approach by using qubits, which can have, for example, all combinations


of zero, zero, zero, one, one, zero, and one, one, all at the same time. From another


angle, let's use an example. I know that at nine o'clock in the morning, you can be either


at home or at work. There can be a dozen other possibilities. Their chance to be true


is less likely. Unless I give you a call or visit you at your place or office, I cannot


know which location you're at. For me, you are in a state of superposition or probability.


This is what makes quantum's computer so powerful as their exponential, or sometimes


word to as even doubly exponential nature. Each qubit doubles its relative computing power.


Relative to classical computing, 8 bits equals 1 byte, but in quantum computing, 8 bits equals


64 bytes. With many high-quality qubits, the right environmental conditions and an algorithm


we can perform calculations faster than any modern classical supercomputer. It can be a little


unsettling to think of that the world around is existing in a state of probability with


no materialistic properties until it's observed. In the case of quantum entanglement,


where you have two particles born of the same event, once observed, it instantly heralds


its twin into existence no matter how much distance is separated between the two.


Despite being counterintuitive to how we observe reality, experiment after experiment has


shown us to be true. Fast forward to 2020. Big data is gold and hue controls it is king.


Across sectors, biology, technology, social networking, pharmaceuticals, financial, it's


apparent that there are incredible opportunities available to those who can build and


successfully deploy systems to calculate data. Not only do we need things to be processed


faster, we need them to build a store more information. This is where quantum computing


shows a great promising future and exactly what all the hype is about.


Okay, see my asking if these machines are so amazing, why haven't we shifted to them already?


Quantum computing is a relatively new field still in its infancy. The technology bears no


resemblance and function or appearance to a computer you have used before. It doesn't


use transistors or logic aids like your smartphone or your PC like one would expect.


Quantum computers are analog in nature so the output of them is probabilistic.


Now that we've already begun talking about the challenges and complexities in quantum


computing, let's talk about what a quantum computer is. Most mainstream designs are on


quantum computers have a few requirements. First off, number one, it needs qubits.


The quantum equivalent of a bit that can be put in a superposition. These can be anything


from matter and ions to even potentially full tons of light. The qubits need to be able


to interact with each other. That's number two. Number three, qubits need to be able


to hold information and this information must be able to be retrieved.


Number four, the qubits need to be stable long enough to perform some sort of calculation.


And number five, in most cases, all of this must be done near absolute zero within special


refrigerators called dilution refrigerators. These refrigerators are capable of producing


the coldest temperatures in the known universe, which has been one of the greatest thermodynamic


challenges during construction of these machines. There's also a type of quantum computer


that uses full tons of qubits that started to grow and show progress over the past three years.


That can be operated at room temperature, which is really exciting. The ability to perform


calculation simultaneously at each qubit is both at super power and Achilles heel. On one hand,


qubits are very powerful, but on the other hand, they're very sensitive to any type of electromagnetic


disturbance or any other type of disturbance. However, despite all the challenges and


complexities, the possibility of quantum computers being able to process and make sense of big


data in the future would be game changing and are simply too massive or lucrative to ignore.


With the recent wave of AI, blockchain, and other innovations, big data has become more important


every passing year. All artificial algorithms rely on the data for which they are input


and the greater the data, the greater the accuracy of the AI. However, the greater of the data


the more difficult it is to compute. And standard CPUs and GPUs just simply don't have the


processing power to do this. We would have to extract data in batches and then train the


AI model to distribute the load and this can be so time consuming that it just becomes not worth it.


But what if we don't have to wait for days to train a model? What if our AI models can be


trained in a matter of hours or minutes? Quantum computers have the potential to work together


harmoniously with classical computers to solve new types of problems. So what does this mean for


cryptography, encryption, or cryptocurrencies? Where do quantum computers come in? This will all be


covered in a later chapter, but if you're always the one to read ahead in class, this is performed


by an algorithm called Shores algorithm, which performs something called factorization.


All right, let's distill all of this into quantum computers explain to grandma in bullet points.


Here we go. Everything a normal or classical computer does comes from a zero or a one. This includes


phone calls, Facebook, photos, messaging, everything. All of it's made up of zeros and ones with an


electrical signal made from light. In a quantum computer, the zero and ones are more like a spinning


quarter or die, both a zero and a one at the same time. This is the greatest advantage that


quantum computers have over normal computers because they use a completely different set of rules


to operate. A quantum computer and a computer such as the one in your house are more different


than they are a light. Quantum computers are still very, very new and are commercially available


by two companies so far. IBM and D-Wave, however, governments and corporations all around the world


are scrambling to build the most powerful machines at great costs. Quantum computers have


the potential to be much, much faster at solving problems in areas like cryptography, engineering,


pharmaceuticals, and finances. They are great at finding solutions to come up with some of the


problems that normal computers struggle with but are not good for every. Quantum computers will


likely never replace normal computers. They need to work together as a team. Society is still trying


to understand all the things that these machines can do and there are still existing engineering


challenges that need to be overcome. Not all of the bugs are worked out so far so normal computers


are still the best option for 99% of tasks. Progress in the field of quantum computers is


increasing very, very quickly, week by week. Announcements by companies like IBM,


IonQ, D-Wave, and Honeywell seem to indicate the coming of a completely new generation of computers.


Nothing like the ones we have today. The quantum threat has been known of all from more than 25 years.


In 2015, researchers estimated that it would take a billion qubits to crack RSA 2048.


Later on, this 2019 is number of residues to 20 million. The latest estimates now put the number


of qubits between 232600 that for qubits that are error corrected. As of October 1st,


2020, Quantum startup IonQ claims a quantum volume of an incredible 4 million. Now, while this


claim still needs to be a substantiated, companies are getting more and more confident with their


claims and in some cases putting the reputations on the line. Research is still being done on what


level of quantum volume starts to threaten Bitcoin in other areas of cryptography. So, the question


you should be asking yourself is, given the obvious and tremendous advancements being made,


at what point does not hold in Q or L become too great of a risk. Stay tuned for our next


episode where we continue down the path of how quantum computers and blockchain on intercept course.


Until then, thanks for watching.


Post Quantum Cryptography with Geometry Labs- Part II + AMA

of the QRL in today's episode, we are going to be talking about the future of post-quantum


cryptography and we have the team from geometry labs with us, so stay tuned and explore more of


post-quantum cryptography in today's part two episode with geometry labs.


This beginning to witness unprecedented technological growth in areas such as AI in quantum computers,


but what does this mean for Bitcoin and blockchain? Welcome to the QRL Live, where we discuss


the collision of quantum computing, blockchain, AI, and cryptocurrency, some of the most compelling


and emerging technologies today. The field of quantum computers is one of the newest and most


promising areas of science and its implications could very well disrupt our world in unpredictable


ways. State of the Air Machines are being built today that in the future could be as disruptive


as the transistor, television, possibly even the internet. We can no longer ignore these implications.


What does this mean for Bitcoin and crypto? Cryptocurrency and therefore blockchain is considered


classically secure from modern supercomputers. However, there is a potential vulnerability in


nearly all blockchain projects, and that a sufficiently powerful quantum computer running


short as algorithm could effectively take over the addressing scheme, empty wallets,


disrupt applications, and cripple an entire cryptographic networks.


Scientists, developers, and researchers have known about this emerging threat for some time now,


and in response, the NIST has been working since 2016 to develop post-quantum secure cryptography.


In fact, the brightest minds in science and cryptography are working on solutions to this problem


right now. The QRL project is a purpose-built quantum computer resistant,


doubly audited industrial quality cryptocurrency that uses the NIST recommended XMSS


hash-based signature scheme, which is provably quantum resistant. So what does this even mean?


It means that we develop the blockchain technology of tomorrow in order to keep your digital assets


secure today. Welcome to QRL Life. Let's dive in.


Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Quantum Resistant


Leger channel, the place where you come for the crypto and stay for the quantum.


On today's episode, we have the team from geometry labs back with us to discuss the future of


post-quantum cryptography to do a little bit of a part two episode of where we have to


off in our last conversation. And then we're also going to be diving into an AMA.


We're just really excited to have a team joining me is our director of outreach at the QRL,


Michael Strowick, and a team from geometry labs. We have Adam Corbo, we have Mitchell


Craviette Stayer and Brandon Goodell with us. Guys, it is great to have you guys back here with me.


And we're kind of like to start out for today's episode is I want to get some people up to speed


based on the last episode that we had a few weeks back where we discussed all things post-quantum


cryptography, lattice-based cryptography, and we dove into some different areas there. What I'd like


to ask is if one of you could dive into probably Mitchell, this would probably be the best question


for you. Could you first for a few minutes for those that are viewing now or if they're viewing


it later? Could you cover what is geometry labs and what's the working relationship with QRL?


Yeah, so geometry labs is a decentralized finance and cryptography research and development lab.


We're a team of engineers, scientists, and mathematicians developing like the next generation of


you know open source tools and all kinds of cool stuff for the ecosystems. Our team members have


contributed across a whole bunch of ecosystems, obviously quantum resistant, ledger,


zcash, polka dot, manero, icon, nerve-os. We were working with a lot of different communities.


Our specializations kind of vary from de-fi products and tooling to blockchain infrastructure,


to analytics and network observatories. And then like the thing that we're excited to talk about


today is developing novel cryptographic mechanisms. So that's our post-quantum cryptography research


team, the folks on this call. We've been working kind of as an embedded research team within QRL.


So we have kind of a research agenda to build out a bunch of lattice-based cryptography,


which has improvements for scaling and functionality. I'm excited to talk about that later in this


call. And yeah, so we kind of do our work. We prepare papers. We prepare code prototypes,


some early benchmarking, meet by weekly with the QRL engineering team to learn, you know, how


things fit in. We've really enjoyed the relationship. It's been, it's been some of our most exciting


work. Now thanks for covering that. That kind of gives people that are viewing this a bit of


context. And I think now would be a good time to jump into where we left off in the part one of


this conversation, or where we were going to start diving into atomic swaps. Strike, if you want to


ask the question here on atomic swaps, I think this would be a good leading point for the rest


of our conversation. And then we can kind of go from here. Yeah, so this was a question from our


community. In fact, the next, Ryan and I are going to alternate a little bit between questions that


we received ahead of time. So this is one of them. Can atomic swaps work with the current


implementation, or is this part of the proof of stake upgrade? I'll take this one since it's a


cryptography question. So the question about atomic swaps currently with XMSS, that is not something


we've looked into at all. The stuff that we've developed with atomic swaps is what's going to be


possible with the upgrade that is going to hopefully aggregate signatures. And I'm not sure if I want


to talk too much about it yet because I'm sure that there's going to be more questions about that.


But the idea is not just to upgrade the stake signatures, but actually all signatures, and then


make them so that they can support things like atomic swaps and lightning network. And so the


idea is not to use the current implementation of XMSS signatures and QRL, but to upgrade to a


lattice-based answer. And actually, I've kind of a clarifying question. So whether or not we can do


these lattice-based atomic swaps has to do really with how keys are handled, not whether it's


proof of stake or proof of work, right? Like the consensus mechanism is kind of orthogonal.


Yeah. What types of keys we use? Absolutely. The fact that this is going to be coming with the


stake upgrade is actually just sort of coincidental. It's actually coming with signatures that we're


using in the stake upgrade. Yeah. And that kind of probably jumps in this next one a little bit


or kind of overlaps with another question that came in was how do you want comic swaps work? And


do they require some art contracts? So maybe obviously we don't know the person who was asking


this there standing of it technically, but is there anything else there to add on atomic swaps?


Sure. So the way that an atomic swap works is the phrase atomic doesn't come from the fact that


you're swapping around like atomic units of the currency, it comes from the free from the idea that


either the protocol completes entirely and both parties get what they want or the protocol does


not complete at all and neither party gets anything or loses anything, right? So it's either


it's one and done, right? Or actually I shouldn't say that because it oftentimes requires interaction,


but the way that atomic swaps generally work is you would send you and I would agree upon


like a two or two multi-signature address and you would send money to this on one chain,


like the Bitcoin chain. And then you would set that signature or that address up so that if you


were to reveal a secret, then I would be if I was able to reveal a secret, then I could claim the money.


The question is then how do you transmit that secret to me, right? And that's where the sort


of the magic of atomic swaps work. Using adapter signatures, it's actually a really neat trick.


adapter signatures are designed to sort of verifiably encrypt a secret so that you can pack a


secret into a signature and a pre-signature. So first I hand you a pre-signature on the side


and then on the main chain somebody publishes a full signature. And then you use the signature


that you received on the side and you download the blockchain data to download the signature and you


extract the secret and then you can then go use that secret on this other chain in order to


claim your funds. So there's actually a bunch of different ways to do atomic swaps, but the way


that we're doing it with adapter signatures seems to be one of the simpler ways.


The question whether or not they require smart contracts is actually sort of a theoretical


brain teaser. There's this Claymore refund functionality that's sort of primitive to things


like atomic swaps and smart contracts that you sort of require, right? So the reason that the


atomic swap can work so that it's atomic is that you set up these refund times so that if the time


exceeds the refund time you can always get your money back. So you require this Claymore refund


functionality in the underlying transaction structure, but if you have that then you enable things


like smart contracts and atomic swaps. Now we haven't looked directly into smart contracts yet,


but the fact that we're using adapter signatures and we can pack secrets into them and we know


that we already know that we can do a lightning-n


that means that we're going to be able to at the very least do atomic swaps and lightning network.


If somebody came along and came up with ways to construct smart contracts based on these


adapter signatures, that would be a great contribution to QRL in my opinion, but that's not what


we're looking at directly. So I don't really have a specific answer to that question, although


I know that there's a lot of stuff that can be done using this extra secret that's packed in there.


There's a lot of arguments of knowledge, not proofs of knowledge, but arguments of knowledge that


can go through in the lattice setting with these secrets that you can use for smart contracting.


The problem is that an argument of knowledge is classically secure and proof of knowledge is


quantity here, right? So even though there's some functionality that's available here,


we're not exactly sure what the security level of these different structures are or what these


the security level of the different applications might be, right? So even though we're hoping for


something that's secure across the board, so it can be used for lightning network and atomic swaps


and transactions and proof of stake signatures and random beacons for validator election,


stuff like that, right? We want to cram all these properties in there. If we can finally get


smart contracts in there also along with all of these things, I mean, that'd be great and it


honestly wouldn't surprise me too much. Can I ask a leading question? Yeah, that answers a good,


but, uh, Mitchell, Mitchell, go. I'll take a mic. Yeah, so you were talking about how a


quarter of the atomic swaps is, and again, you reveal a secret to claim your, uh, claim your funds.


Does this have to be a lattice secret or can we have compatibility between, say, lattice and elliptic


curve change? Uh, right. So if I wanted to send you, um, uh, so let's say we have a magic version


of QRL that already implemented these adapter signatures, I could send you a lattice-based


pre-signature and then eventually transmit a lattice-based signature on the QRL network,


you can extract from that a witness, which acts as a hash pre-image on the Bitcoin network.


So, in a certain sense, you're going to be able to, uh, use these, like, the pre-image functionality


of Bitcoin in order to do a cross-chain thing, um, uh, so that the secret that's revealed from


these signatures can, can genuinely be used. Uh, so when, when I say atomic swaps, I don't mean


atomic swaps just between lattice to lattice, uh, coins, I mean between lattice and discrete logarithm


coins. Uh, I honestly haven't thought about hash-based stuff yet for it, so I don't know where


that could go, but, um, uh, yeah, there's at least a little bit of flexibility and how we can do


that across different, uh, cryptographic settings. So this is different. Oh, glad. Oh, it's


existing. Like this is basically leading into a framework for like QRL, BTC swaps, QRL, Ethereum,


that kind of thing. Assuming that's your own merits, Belboro. You see, so that sort of thing.


Um, at the very least, uh, um, yeah, I'd be shocked if we can't do QRL with Ethereum.


Yeah, I'd be shocked. Bitcoin, like, you know, I'm still like working out the details for the


Bitcoin stuff, um, and Monero stuff, but like, I'd be shocked if we couldn't do it with Ethereum,


because Ethereum is just designed for stuff like that, right? So, so it sounds like, uh,


in the, in the case of, uh, atomic swaps, uh, both parties get what they want or both,


or they get nothing. Yeah, and not only do they, uh, get nothing, but they lose nothing. Right.


So it's not like a divorce. Well, in a divorce, you might lose something.


Right. So, uh, this is more like, um, uh, you come across a random person on the street,


you can engage in an atomic swap with them without having to worry that they might jack your money.


That's what, that's where the atomic comes from. Either both parties get the, the,


the defined swap conditions from the beginning, uh, satisfied or neither party gets anything and


loses anything. So it's, it's trustless. Uh, so there's no like griefing where someone gets


slashed. It just rolls back. Yeah. Yeah. That's a trustless atomic swap. Cool. Yeah. And I wouldn't


even say it rolls back because what all this, all of the, all of the atomic swap mainly takes place


via communication on side channels. Right. So like, uh, by rolled back,


we might mean the time lapse exceeds or the time limit is exceeded. And so the refund triggers


and the person who started the swap gets the reclaimed their money. That's a more precise


the way to say it. Yeah. Yeah. And you know me. You, uh, you mentioned, uh, integration with Bitcoin,


I think a few minutes ago, is, uh, that part, uh, where you referring to, uh, uh, uh, uh, post


taproot and smart contract availability or is that, is that what you meant by that? Um, well,


honestly, I just meant from I could, I think we can figure out how to hand over a discrete


logarithm based secret or a hash it pre image based secret to, uh, in exchange for a ladders


based secret. So, uh, when I say Bitcoin, I mean rather generally discrete logarithm based


currencies. Right. So I'm, I miss using the term Bitcoin and the Monero guys are going to be


pissed off at me and, you know, but that's fine. Well, if you're not making waves, you're not trying


hard enough. I got another question from the, uh, community here. Uh, someone writes, are you going


to miss a elliptical curve cryptography slash ECDSA when it's gone? No. It's not like losing an old,


you know, saying goodbye to an old friend, maybe they're going to jail for a while,


something like that. I was going to hope Adam was going to say something. Um, no, that at least from


a mathematician's perspective, elliptic curves are the reason that they're hard is because they're


hard. I mean, like the idea that that's like a really like vacuous statement, but elliptic curve


cryptography is annoying. And lattice based cryptography is this beautiful blend of linear algebra and


convex geometry and functional analysis. And I, and category theory, it's cool. It's just cool.


Whereas like, they looked at curve stuff. I'm, I, it just does not light my fire. And, you know,


I admit that this is a bias on my part. And probably there's going to be a whole group of mathematicians


that were mad at me. But, um, I just can't, I, I, I, not. I know when we check the comments.


What was the saying if everybody loves you, you're not something something right. So,


that, that leads into the next question, speaking of a lattice cryptography and, um, there's another


question that came from the community early on that we aggregated. So what are we looking at for


signing an verification for lattice based systems and how about aggregate signatures? So I just want


to, you guys want to jump into this one based on the question they're asking.


Okay. Mitchell, you did all the benchmarking. All I need to are. Yeah, yeah, I can jump into that.


So right now for, actually, let me just pull off the benchmarks. Um, so things are looking very


good. The most important thing I would say in terms of both space and time is verification.


Because when someone's generating a signature, for example, that only happens once on one person's


device, whereas when it comes to verification, that needs to happen to literally every person


who ever joins the blockchain at any time in the future. We've gotten this down to with 128 bits


of security, being able to aggregate 127 signatures into about two megabytes. And the whole thing


verifies in two seconds, under two seconds on my machine, meaning we're looking at about 15


milliseconds of verification time per siner, which is pretty exciting. Um, the


to be perfectly clear here, I think that these numbers are too good to be true. So we're waiting


on some more results, but 15 milliseconds per signature is pretty awesome. Yeah, I ran that we ran


this on a bunch of machines and it ranged from 12 milliseconds to 17 milliseconds depending on


you know, the resources on the device. And that's single threaded. Yeah, so we haven't really done


any optimizations and actually, uh, you're able to, oh, sorry, I didn't mean to talk to you.


Well, you might be, uh, I'm wondering if there's a way you could, with the node, you could


multi thread, you know, use a CPU for each, each and all that. Then we're talking about being able


to scale based on the number of cores and or logical cores. Yeah, verification is highly parallel


izable because like I said, you're right, a lot of space cryptography is like this beautiful blend


of linear algebra and other stuff. And linear algebra happens to be what computers do.


I'm starting to see it. I'm starting to see it. Yeah, there's, there's a couple, um, kind of exciting


optimizations. There's like a small one I have been playing with, which is just a little bit of


code architecting how many function calls and overhead and stuff like that. And then I think,


there's essentially re potentially paradigmatic optimizations. So the first one, um, is using


compiling and C. So like right now, everything's running Python, but there's some ways you can


add decorators from like number and jit that will do some just in time compiling and run some of


your functions and see instead of Python. Um, so that might be some low hanging fruit for optimization.


I started playing with a little bit. It's not trivial, but, um, so that's one route. And that's


just kind of a fundamental faster way to process it. The second one is, oh, second, I'm going to be,


oh, yeah. So what we were just talking about, everything in in this library basically boils down to


adding lists of integers, multiplying lists of integers, modding lists of integers, or like list of


lists. And all of these are done element wise. So it's like first element plus first element, second


plus second, third plus third, fourth plus fourth. And so this is like the perfect thing to parallelize,


right? You have like a thousand elements. You have four cores. You sent 250 off to each,


and then boom, they bring it back together. So the fact that for almost all of the calculations,


what's happening on one set of elements doesn't impact what's happening on the other set of elements


is like perfect for this. Um, and so I think the between the compiling and parallelization,


there's probably some massive speed ups there that like a low level engineer could dive in and


it'd probably be low hanging fruit. Um, and then the third one is, uh, using a fixed number of non-zero


entries, Brandon, do you want to talk about that? It was your like brilliant idea. Oh, it's not


really a my brilliant idea. It's a trick they use in crystals that lithium to generate keys. Um,


generally for lattice based keys, if you do a naive definition of keys, you get a huge number of keys,


like so many more keys than what is considered cryptographically secure, right? Like we're talking like


two to the thousandth or something like that or more two to the 10,000, you know, like ridiculous


numbers of keys. Um, so what you can do is instead of rolling keys like normal, you can set a whole


bunch of entries to the varif kit to the secret key to zero and then just pick a few of the entries


to be non-zero. And that way you just need to store the indices of the non-zero entries and that way


you store a lot less of the key, right? And you still end up with a cryptographically large number


of keys and the cryptography problems are still just as hard to solve, right? So we come up with a


little implementations like that, but you know what the real mind-blower for this is, I'm not sure


if I have a total Mitchell about this. I haven't told Adam about this a lot. You guys are gonna like


this. So the reason that we, uh, we can manage to do this element-wise arithmetic that Mitchell


was just talking about is the magic of something called the number theoretic transform. The number


theoretic transform is sort of a version of the Fourier transform. If anybody's ever taken an


electrical engineering class or a calculus class or something like that. And here's what's interesting


about the Fourier transform. It's also what your brain does to the incoming information from your


eye between your eye and the V1 area of your brain. Your brain does a wavelet decomposition on the


input data and the both time it hits the V1 area of your brain, it's just decomposed already. So they


can opt- so your brain can optimally compute off of that information. And your ear does the same


thing too. Your ear does Fourier decomposition. It just splits the data up into the most optimal


representation before it even hits the A1 area of your brain, the audio one area of your brain.


And what we're doing for this cryptography or for to make this cryptography go faster is we're


basically using the same trick that evolution landed on from nature in order to just


boom, split everything first and then do the computation on that raw data. I mean, if that's not


beautiful, you don't have a heart. If I'm not mistaken, Fourier transforms also would get supply


to qubits. It's one reason why like sure as algorithm and stuff can be run or not faster.


Yeah, I think that's part of the processing. It's called the quantum Fourier transform, exactly.


All right, yeah. Thank you for that answer. Yeah, I think right now we should do a strike to


interject. We should do probably just for everyone that's watching this, we're going to do maybe


we'll do one or two more questions that we pull the ahead of time we pull then. And for everyone


watching, if you want to ask a question as we trail on and part of our AMA here, throw it into the


chat here so we can go through and pull a few more of those. But I know Michael, you had another


one in here related to atomic swaps that we wanted to pull in. So yeah, it might have been covered


already the question. Yeah, how will I do the last one if not? Yeah. Yeah, you guys can tell me if


it's covered, if it was covered fully, how will atomic swaps and lattice six contribute to the


network? I think you touched on that quite a bit in one of the previous questions. Yeah.


Yeah. All right, we'll just do the last question then here that we have


preview of value you're ready. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I think it's what is I'll just read what


they wrote here. Have you have you evaluated proof of history style POS for QRL? Could that be made


QR quantum resistant benefits by high performance L1? Okay, so that's just a question pulled in.


Either we can touch on that or if other people have questions, it's up to you guys on this one.


What was POH? I had to look up POH. Proof of history. Yeah, same here proof of history.


This is really no, this is one of those interesting questions, but not because the question is


interesting, even though the question is sort of interesting, it's because somebody in the audience


wanted to bring up proof of history. And so they were like, hey, let's mention this.


My one of your projects have proof of history. Yeah, oh G. I've never heard of G. B. F.


No idea. It's like a VD like verifiable delay function thing, right? Or no? It sounds like a consensus


mechanism. Yeah, I have no idea. Sorry to be so anti-climactic with that one. I think what


this is boiled down to is are there, and this isn't an exact answer, but I think it hits the


key point. Is there a way to do post-cronome secure verifiable delay functions? No, that's a good question.


Yeah, which is not something I've thought about until literally right now.


So I was waiting for the answer. I think super singular, I sogening methods can do this.


I don't know. I think I'm going to probably make an incorrect statement here. Go for it. No,


I'm not going to do that. I have no idea. I had no message, but I'm not sure.


I think it could be done. Yeah, okay. Right. Yeah, we're just going to take us into the


mentee, the AMA answer with the communities coming. Yeah, I'm going to I'm going to just give me


one second guys. I'm just going to pull up and see if we have any other ones coming through here


in real time. I think I do have an answer for the QVFD. I'm going to just go on on the


win and just guess. I think that so if you take a group of unknown order and you're trying to


and you hand me a random irrelevant and you ask me what the order is. The only way I can really


figure that out is progressively multiplying it by itself. And that's a linear process that I don't


think can be exploited on the quantum level. Like I don't think you can take a fuzz version of a


group element and keep computing its powers. So, but when you query like an oracle, like a random


oracle, like a hash function, you get a little bit with a with a with a non collapsed state,


right? You get a whole bunch of answers back related to all of the inputs. So unlike that problem,


I don't think that this one can be exploited on a quantum level. So I don't think that the


finding a random group element in a group of unknown orders. Yeah, I don't think that problem,


I think that might be a QVDF, but this is just an intuition and I don't have any proof of that


statement. Somebody's going to be very upset at me for saying that. I hope it's Andrew Polster. I hope


he emails me and he's like, you are fool. Well, if you're way off, I'm sure Ryan and I will take the


abuse in the forum. So let me handle that. I'll pop up one more for the AMA and see. Let's see what else


we got here. And I'll just read it out just because it's coming out in real time. So let's


quantum computers represent an exponential increase in processing capacity and eventually in


mining hash, how to guarantee the security of a network from attack 51% until the implementation


of proof of stake. If anybody wants to take that one, I'm just pulling this one in real time,


otherwise I would have popped it up on here. I think I got like half of it, honestly.


Yeah, for me. Yeah, I'll probably want to admit that I hear the whole thing.


Quantum computers represent an exponential increase in processing capacity and eventually in


mining hash, how do you guarantee the security of the network from 51% attacks until the


implementation of proof of stake happens? They kind of had a spelling error too and there, so I'm


just trying to read it. That's spelling error. But yeah. So the good news is that the mining


power is not vulnerable to quantum. If you look at like even Bitcoin, they're using Shot 256


as their hash function. Quantum computers are not necessary. They get a quadratic, excuse me.


Yeah, they get a quadratic speed up from growers, which would represent a quadratic speed up in


like their rather quadratic increase in their relative hash power. But at the same


which could be right, if somebody came out with a huge ASIC tomorrow, the practical speed improvement.


Look, yeah, the network is not going to be vulnerable to quantum computers on the hash level.


It's going to be vulnerable to quantum computers on the 4-degree level. And the people are going to


be able to steal your money and then it'll be confirmed fairly. It's just done in Pauli normal time.


Yeah, right. Yeah, I get another one here that just came in in real time too. I'll pop it up on


here whoever wants to take it. These sound like great improvements to lattice-based systems.


Will there be further peer review? Whoever wants to take this one. We'll see maybe we've got one


more after this one to wrap up the A&A. Actually, I have a question about this personally because I


don't know exactly what the terms are for the QRL thing because we are writing a paper. We are


going to release it as a white paper. And we're also encouraging QRL to undergo an audit of what


we're doing independently of us so that there is a review by peers. But unless we submit that paper


for a journal, it won't technically be a peer review paper. And I'm not sure if that is what we plan


and maybe Mitchell has a better answer to that question. Yeah, yeah, so actually that is a great


question. There is some semi-internal semi-external peer review happening right now. Actually,


we're working with a crypto analysis expert. She's really digging into the parameter selection.


So that will be some incredibly valuable feedback. And then yeah, I think it would be great honestly


to get this through a peer review cycle. Because when we think about like, okay, what if something


is broken in the scheme? It could be broken in like two ways, right? The math or the code.


And so peer review papers is basically the best way to get all the eyes on the math. So I think


that would be a great step. Thanks for covering that. I think that kind of wraps up. We've


probably covered a number of questions that came in earlier for the first part of the AMA.


A couple here at the end. And myself and Michael, we appreciate you guys jumping on and


continuing our conversation for our first part one episode. And just chatting all things


post quantum cryptography. Because it's one of those areas where a lot of, there's just a


lack going on. Obviously, some people will see it now and kind of mites go off at some areas of it.


But as we move further and further along, it's definitely a lot of those things right in


the end. I'm going to roll out. So it's always interesting to find to have conversations with


you guys about it. Because you guys are on the leading edge of that part. But I appreciate you


guys coming on to chat with myself and Michael today. And is there any other closing thoughts you guys


got in your end? One last question. When prediction, when will 256 bit ECDSE break?


No comment. 256 bit. And you should ask all the troll papers,


nor is putting out lately. Yeah, I know, right? This destroy us. It's completely safe. You can even say


2025 to 2040. Let's stick with 128 bit prediction. I think that 128 bits is going to be


commercially practical to break a key in reasonable period of time, like less than a month maybe,


probably by 2026. I would say that's probably a conservative guess.


Whether or not. And when I say commercially, I don't necessarily mean that


everybody will know that this technology exists. But right now, you can rent IBM quantum


computers. Right? And they're not great. They're they're the beginning of the technology. But


technically quantum computers are already commercially available. But the commercial


viability is a different question. And whether or not I can blow half a million dollars to break


one of Satoshi's keys in 2026 by renting an IBM quantum computer, I would put that probably at 5050.


But I think Satoshi was 256 bit and I wanted to avoid making a prediction about 256 bits.


Please, I noticed you qualified with commercial because we don't I don't know. Just before the


call, I just emailed the NSA and see if they could just give me an update. I'm still waiting to hear


back. I'm still waiting to hear back. Yeah. So like I would guess that it's going to be the beginning


of the end sometime in the next three or four years, like at the latest. And the real problem is


is that when it becomes commercially available, that's not when the apocalypse happens.


Right. The apocalypse happens before that. It happens right now. It's happening right now.


Because bunch of people aren't migrating their code from pre-quantum to post-quantum.


Can you imagine a scenario in which you're running a blockchain project? And you have to


expedite a quantum secure shoe horn. It's essentially a pilot. I mean, it's


a good idea. It would be such a huge undertaking. It's almost impossible if not impossible.


It's a large project. If it takes two to three years to migrate, right, like it'll take a


minimum of six months of R&D time to figure out what you're migrating to. It'll take a minimum


of a year for development and testing to be done. So that's production level. Right. Like you


add up all the different like periods of time that's going to take, oh, and by the way,


you're a decentralized project. So good luck coming to a decision. Right. Like even at Amazon,


it's going to take years and years for them to migrate over to post-quantum stuff. Right.


They have literally all the resources on the planet. I shouldn't say literally really close to


literally don't. I think one of the advantages of the projects that probably stand the best chance


of the list of blockchains that need to quickly adapt are going to be the ones that have


distributed on chain governance and voting. To your point either, I mean, good luck trying to,


but get everyone to agree. But if you can do it on chain, you can do it on chain. At least then


you'll be able to have the question start getting, getting finalized answers to questions on how to


move forward. But either way, even with that, even with all the advantages of that and an expedited


timeline and resources. Yep. You see, yeah, no matter how fast you put it in, you still have to


wait for everyone to migrate at some point because those addresses are still going to be susceptible.


Right. And sure. The worst part about especially for these stake-based coins is that proof of


stake, unlike proof of work, is not forward secure in the following sense. Once somebody breaks stake,


they own that chain. They can ensure that they never lose their stake, that they're 51% stake.


Right. And they can move money around so that it looks like from an outside observer's perspective


that the money is being distributed fairly as if stake has not been concentrated in a single


person's hands. And once that happens, you're just sunk. You're done as far as transaction


verification goes on a stake chain. Whereas with work, if somebody takes over the stake chain, well,


okay, three or four years from now, if they haven't been continually investing into the hardware,


then they're going to lose their place. And then somebody else is going to be in charge.


And that's what I mean by forward secure. The stake chain, once it's broken, it's just,


you can't trust it ever again. But if proof of work, if somebody temporarily takes over a work-based


chain, there's always a chance that it becomes fair again. And so in the quantum world, when we're


talking about forging signatures on a classically secure stake-based chain, and you're, let's say you're


using the 25519 curve, G, what coins use that? This is the Olympic curve that Monero uses.


And let's say that your security proofs are all based on the forging algorithm, okay? So the keys


for the 25519 curve are 128 bits classically secure before the forking algorithm. But because of the


forking algorithm and the security proof of ring signatures, there are really only 64-bit


signatures. So for 64 bits of security, somebody could, right now, today, forge a Monero signature.


And just so you guys know, two of the 64, I mean, 64 bits of security is a lot. And it would take


an enormous number of resources. We're not talking about like a single nation state being a


look for just single Monero signature and being able to like brag about it. Like this is a waste of


money at this point to do that. But 64 bits of classical security today, yeah, if we're not migrating


over like starting now, then it's like staring at the asteroid as it's heading towards us.


And just you would have to cut the chain, go to distributed governance, do on chain boat,


stop it, right? Roll agree on what to roll back, which this is in this obviously goes,


the the problem is this goes against the tenants, the values of distributed governance.


Anyway, the immutability, this is permanent. If I own something, if I have something in my hand,


right, I own this. And this is, you know, there's no question as to that. And the part that I


were, one of the one of the additional things that I worry about is the compromise that,


because that's an ideological compromise. And it's a bit, it's a bit of setting a precursor.


So I worry about that a little bit. Yeah, I, so I'm not personally like a coders law person,


but a lot of people are, but that philosophy is kind of predicated upon assuming that the code


impacts everyone the same, right? If you now have a quantum computer that can run the same code


and do very different things in the classical computer, then the like that philosophy becomes


very tangled up and becomes like much less clear. I think we're definitely, we're definitely


in what I like to call the quantum grace period, right? There was like thousands of years where


we didn't know about quantum computers and everything was like happy, right? Ignorance is bliss.


And then it's leave, we've crossed that point where we can see what's coming on the horizon


that we enter the grace period. And that grace period is eventually going to end when, you know,


commercially available or non commercially available quantum computers get up to scale. And so one


of those things is like knowing that there's like the ignorance era, the grace era, and then the


like apocalypse era, it's like, okay, we're in the grace period. What do we want to do with this?


And when do we want to start working on it? In my answer tends to be yesterday.


Yeah, that's a great final wrap up question. Just talk where that led. And I think that probably


that we considered this episode a part two for our conversation on post quantum cryptography.


But I honestly think based on where this conversation is led, I think that we can probably do


an offshoot of this in a few different avenues, you know, down the road. So I think myself,


Michael really enjoy this conversation. I hope you guys did as well. And I appreciate you guys


coming on today and joining us. And for everyone watching, I appreciate you joining us to make


sure to learn what's going on. Make sure you go to the tural.org. If you haven't already,


learn about our project, look at our other YouTube videos and make sure as well.


Right now we're in part one of this video with John True Labs. But if you haven't already seen


the part one of that beforehand, obviously part two is today. But make sure you go back and click


on that video. It's about two videos prior. And during that, we cover everything from


lattice based cryptography to Brandon pulls out the whiteboard and goes over a bunch of really,


you know, it's it's it's math class. But you know, for an exciting type of class for us.


So make sure to be ever already checked that out. Do so. And until our next episode, until our next


probably upcoming conversation at some point with John True Labs, thank you Adam, Brandon,


Mitchell and strike. And we will see you all in the next episode. Take care.


Thanks for having us. See you guys. Adios.


What Makes a QRL Quantum Wallet Different? - E02

Welcome everyone, my name is Michael Strike, AKA Strike Attack, and welcome to the official


Quantum Resistance Lager channel, your video portal, into Pulse Quantum Blockchain Digital


Asset Security.


So this video is going to be part 1 of 2.


In this video I'm going to run you through some of the fundamental differences between


a future Pulse Quantum Secure Q or L wallet, compared to that of a standard issue cryptocurrency


wallet like Bitcoin or other altcoins.


In a follow up video I'm going to walk you through step by step in the website on how to create


one so you can get started right away.


Ok so what makes a Quantum wallet different from a traditional crypto wallet?


Probably the most fundamental difference is in regards to how public private key pairs are


used.


In traditional private public key pairs a message is signed against a recipients public


key and the private key decryption.


But this is also the Achilles heel of traditional asymmetric encryption in a Pulse Quantum


world.


One private key and one public key.


This states all the way back into the 1970s and your Q or all wallet is similar but with


one big difference.


It uses many, many keys so let me explain.


When you create a new wallet you create what's called an XMSS tree.


This tree contains many signatures which were referred to as the one-time signature scheme.


Here's the important part.


Each signature in the OTS can only be used one time because each tree containing key pairs


has a limited number of branches.


But don't worry you can create a tree with up to 262,000 public private key pairs and the


web interface will not only start to shoot warnings when you reach this limit but you can


also see how many keys you have left based on the web altogether.


So this one-time use policy is a fundamental concept behind quantum resistant asymmetric encryption.


Each key pair is presented to the network only one time and any keys that attempt to be


reused will be automatically rejected.


So what is all this mean?


It means that every time you submit a transaction, a counter on your wallet decrements


by one.


You need to generate a new wallet and transfer your quantum over to it before it reaches


zero.


The takeaway here is that you are creating an NIST draft recommended quantum secure wallet.


Your funds are current tech, future step tech secure using state of the art encryption.


But this additional complexity is what is keeping your digital assets secure for now


and in the future.


So let's talk about how to store your private key information.


The professional consensus is that a hardware wallet is the best option here.


Keywords compatible with the ledger hardware line of products.


If you buy one, I definitely recommend you buy it from Dub Dubdubdubledger.com.


There are a few scams circulating around in which a second hand wallet has been sold


as new and the instructions inside them have been replaced by someone with less than


pure and honest intentions.


Whether or not you use a hardware wallet or not, you'll need to store your private wallet


information somewhere.


Now this area is a little bit debatable but here are some reasonable options to consider.


You can download your wallet, JSON file, after you create it on the website and pass


from protect it without any third party software.


This is pretty easy.


You can, whenever you want to open your wallet, you just take your file and upload it to


the website.


Make sure you use a strong password and keep it off any network attached device, especially


any internet network attached device, for example, two USB drives and different locations.


Another option is you can take information and write it down by hand and keep at least


two physical paper copies and separate secure locations.


A disadvantage is that you'll need to write down the information from the website manually


and if you do this, that's always prone to error.


A third option is you use a program called key pass and put your private information there.


Key pass is free wear, that's trusted by Fortune 500 companies for years.


For a secure password storage, this might be useful if you have multiple keys across multiple


currencies but you still have the issue in that you need to complex password to keep


somewhere.


So if you still have questions, you can join our Discord community.


We have an active and vibrant community there.


That's full of discussion and you can find our website at dub dub dub dub dot ql.org and


our online documentation is at docs dot dub ql.org.


Thanks for watching.


More videos to come.


Thanks.


Awesome Projects Built at QRL Hackathon 2022

Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the QRL show, the place where you come for the crypto and stay for the quantum in today's episode


We're going to be highlighting a number of projects that were presented to us at this year's QRL hackathon


2022 and we're coming out of a successful QRL hackathon event that just took place recently in Amsterdam


We're a lot of great projects were built and just great like-minded


Building within the QRL ecosystem


So in today's episode what we're going to be doing is highlighting a number of those projects that were presented to us at the hackathon


We're going to give an overview on each project for a few minutes


We're going to give our take and then we're going to provide you with a link in the show notes or a place where you can check out more on each project


If you're interested in checking them out and we're looking forward to going through these as a quick note before we jump in and cover some of these projects


our


Commentary on each of these projects is not a stamp of approval or representation of these projects at this time since a number of them still require some


Security testing and making sure that you know all is smooth there


But really our aim behind this episode is to go through


What was presented to us?


And then this will lead to further dialogue and discussion with the project creators of each of these projects to help their


Really quality work within the ecosystem get the exposure that it deserves


So when we cover some of these projects


There might be a follow-up episode where we have the project creator come on with us via audio video or Q&A style and answer some questions


on why they built their project what the intention was behind it, but I am joined now by


Michael strike on our team and he's going to be hopping on in one second and we're going to start going through each of these projects


We're back we're back from action. Yeah, we're back from a successful hackathon really I enjoyed the


community


Interaction with the team. I thought that it was a great group of people


You know not too big not too large. I think some of our upcoming hackathons whether it's in North America or Europe


I think they're gonna be


Continue to evolve, but I really thought it was a great setting and it could venue


What do you think about it? Yeah, I thought it was a great setting me here. Here's here's one of the nice things about Amsterdam as usually you have


Freedom and safety can easily quite quite easily become negatively correlated


Amsterdam is kind of this unique place in the world that there's a lot of a lot of liberty, but also you could you also feel very safe


while you're there so


In the spirit of blockchain ideology and


And


In that type of thought process. I think that that was a really good. I think that was a good choice as far as where to have the hackathon


based on


System of values and ideals so that was fun. Yeah, it's nice to meet our community members


Yeah, I feel like it's nice to get out of our you know our bubbles last few years in terms of and you know


Face-to-face interaction. So yeah without without further ado. We're gonna cover four projects in sequence


I'll just give you a quick overview. We're gonna be covering


Raspberry Pi we're gonna be covering pure LP


A POS validator and we're gonna re-closing it out with the new QRL mobile wallet


So Michael could you take us away? We're gonna be covering the Raspberry Pi. Can you give us a little bit of an overview on that?


And we can just kind of give a little jamming back and forth for those watching to you know learn a little bit more about it


Yeah, so our Raspberry Pi


There was an I mean there was a there was a build of the Raspberry Pi that was presented as the as the first project and


and


the advantage of this project was that it


removed the AES and I instruction set requirement


from the


From the from the node so you didn't have to have encryption specific instruction sets on on the chip running because


essentially


Ported or forklifted or hacked emulation into into


The node for you. So what this allows you to what that allows you to do is basically run a


Probably quantum secure


Blockchain crypto node on essentially the cheapest hardware possible


So you could probably get a Raspberry Pi down to oh, I don't know maybe you know


$40 something like that


Which is for you know running a


Running a node that's part of a network. That's probably quantum secure


I don't know if it gets much cheaper than that


But there was a that that was a


It was a it was a night. It was a nice workaround for a hardware


restriction that was driven by code that doesn't


That was able to be you know, a ported or


Kind of band-aid it and just so that just to just be able to run something very very inexpensively


Yeah, I have the same thoughts there. I think that it's like the the whole idea of you know being able to hold


Something in the palm of your hand that is you know, potentially quantum resistant. It's kind of a cool concept and also just


There's not there's less restrictions in terms of financial barrier. Okay, so the second project that we're going to be covering is


Q or LP which was created by zero XFF and run forest in our Q or L community and so


It's a payment processor. They wanted to make an easy way to you know have Q or LP


You know a payment method for e-commerce and based on their presentation


They you know showed hey WooCommerce is powering you know of many of the top e-commerce sites


WooCommerce powers, you know a quarter of those many in you know Brazil other countries


So it's it's very popular


amongst a lot of people that use you know WordPress


and you know payment processor e-commerce deployment solution with a WooCommerce Q or LP again


Q or L node wallet and Docker and another important point is that


They already mentioned this in their presentation


But a setup script to configure and launch everything is you know


It's already set up so kind of lowers the friction there


Myself and Michael are going to go back and forth briefly on this one one thing


I do really like about this project is that they're trying to tie it to


Real-world application of being able to you know get people to


You know transfer currency with any Q or L


So I thought that part was neat, but myself and Michael we're gonna go through it right now


Okay, so now we've pulled up the presentation screen that


Run forest went over at Q or L hackathon so Michael


What are your thoughts on this? Yeah, so first off. I love this Borg inspired


Mercenary attack squirrel from this post-apoc the lift of dystopian future


That things awesome looking


With that being said


Let's get let's forward through a little bit in here and kind of discuss this a little bit


So I think that this is a novel approach and I don't know of any other


Projects that are running a community sponsored payment system that is able to interface and accept payments from a


Probably post quantum secure post quantum computer secure blockchain


So this I think this is probably another first perhaps for the crypto ecosystem and perhaps also for a broader umbrella


There is a looks like there's a Q or L pay node according to this project


And a Q or L pay wallet that's run from Docker and it looks like the Q or L pay is


acting as a


intermediary between that and


Woo commerce


So if I just look at the quick if I look at the layout here and from what I understood from the presentation


You are able to run your own node that interoperates with your own Q or L pay installation


And that is that acts as a mediatori between


Woo commerce and your node and you're able to perform for for excuse me perform transactions through your node


Back and forth so


The the the Q or L pay is a bit of a you know, it's a translator. It's a it's a medium


For you to be able to talk to Woo commerce. So


This looks interesting. I don't know if I've seen this before if anyone else is whether it's Q or L pay or any others


Just really think about


When it's placed somewhere. Maybe you also have some you know call to actions in some links that


Also educate people on quanta


In a subtle way, but yeah, that's that's my my my quick take


Okay, so the third project that we're gonna be covering going over is the


POS a validator dashboard that was created at Q or L hackathon 2022


Michael what would we your general thoughts on this project? I know this one


We saw in the presentation of the hackathon a bit of info on this one


We don't have a direct link within our Q or L blog, but what was your take on this project?


Yeah, so a lot of times within


Blockchain ecosystems you have


Trusted code that's all running in a bit containerized


And even though it's true that one of the advantages of blockchain is it's a mutability and transparency


It doesn't always mean that there is a good explorer or


Wait in order to access state file data


or access data or any


Any of the data maybe even metadata on the chain itself


so


This this is a bit unique in that it's giving you the validator data


It's part of the proof of state consensus mechanism to see what the stake in rewards are rather than just having to


rather than in the new in the new


Zond code having to write something to pull out data and see what's actually happening as far as who's getting the rewards and


What each validator has earned with?


Proposed in a tested blocks this lets you see what's going on


Otherwise the code is just running and you don't necessarily you can't you can't really see anything


So I could see a lot like the first like the first project


With the QLP and this one these are precursors to me towards a large to a larger ecosystem


That is being built out. That's pulse quantum secure and at the end of the day


We all know that transparency visibility and all of those things are important


The trust is important but just as equally important is the visibility to be able to access the data to be able to verify the trust yourself


and


a lot of times in a lot of times in blockchain you make people may not have the technical


ability or skill to be able to get to the data that they want and I think that building you know explores and


Explorers such as this will continue to bring more transparency


Even though the transparency is in the code and in state files more accessible transparency in


GUI interfaces and as far as I know this is


the first


One that I think this is the first one part that I was impressed about with this project and I mentioned this


I think of a hackathon is that it was built in a 30 hour span


Based on the POS and smart contract demo that was revealed the first day of the hackathon and so


Based on different parts of the architecture that were demoed a day prior


This project used


What was just learned based on that demo and you know in integrated into their project and you know just tip of the hat to them


For doing that a lot a lot went into that in that short two-day span of the hackathon


So I thought that was pretty notable and I like the part


You know a little bit of gamification on the right-hand column


I'll throw up the image right here


You can see here there is a payout column on the right-hand side currently and then it shows the


Proposer and the attesture counts as well addresses on the left-hand side with a number of elevators at the top


But yeah, no cool project. I enjoyed this one Michael. I'd like to


Wrap wrap it up and cover our last project here. Yeah, so we had a redesign of the QRL wallet


and


The presentation is you can see from the overlay that the presentation was a lot was a lot of fun in the wallet actually looks pretty pretty sharp


With the new that's the functionality of the functionality is similar, but I think it's I think it's it's an important


Prospect to be able to have multiple wallet choices multiple ways in which to access a blockchain because


This isn't just as in we have different


Different types of cryptography that are made made for different reasons and we have different NIS NIS T standards that are all solving the same problem


But maybe you have XMS S or LMS


Options are important. So having another wallet. I think adds is value-ed to the ecosystem


Not just from an aesthetic perspective, but also functionally


Yeah, the vault mine team they created a cool QRL wallet that


I'd say it's a mobile app refresh using QRL brand colors having more options for


People to be using different wallets. You know over time. I think that's a good thing. I think one thing that


Whether it's this new QRL


Mobile wallet or whether it's you know a bill the progression on this one or others


One thing that has to be met is has to be you know transparent in terms of the


The standards of you know it living up to a certain expectation or at least that being you know


Transparent to people so that when they need to select you know if they're gonna use a certain wallet then being a you know


Capital breast on that and then also you know when it comes to wallets


Obviously maintenance in iOS and Android


You know that's a work in it of itself, but


Jump covering just back to the project. I thought that what they built at the hackathon was you know


Really really neat. I thought it was a you know clean look to it. I think it's some


A wallet that I think would be very you know UI UX wise. I think a lot of people would like using it


Definitely need the refresh and I think this QRL mobile wallet provides that and that it was a great project


That was built out of these four projects that we've covered here


I know we've done some overlays while we've been talking about these projects


Within the show notes of this episode while you're listening to this right now


We're watching it


If you just expand the show notes


You can find the links to explore more on each of these projects whether it be


Raspberry Pi whether it be QRL pay the POS


You know validator or it's the QRL mobile wallet and


Really encourage you to check each of these projects out a big part of


This building in these projects had to do with the fact that you know


We had a great environment a motivated group of people together at QRL hackathon 2022 so


I think


That environment was great to be able to you know come together


And chat with different people see what people were working on in building and just meeting a lot of different people with a lot of the same


You know different different flavors of where how they came into crypto and blockchain but


Aligned on a lot of the different you know philosophy and ethos. So I really enjoyed it and I


I'm glad Michael that we covered and highlighted these projects and hopefully based on this it will segue into


Maybe having a number of the project creators come on for an additional episode with us and


Let them take the mic and discuss why they built their projects


And how they believe they're gonna evolve over time. So I appreciate it. Yeah, that sounds good


Maybe we can cut to some of the hackathon footage


Yeah, let's let's cut to as we close out this episode


We're gonna cut to about a minute of hackathon footage


So if you were at QRL hackathon 22 that we just took place


You'll be familiar with this footage if not here's a sneak peek of what might be in store


When you attend one of our upcoming QRL hackathons. That's right. Let's close it out. Thanks Ryan. Thanks Michael. Appreciate it. Thanks Ryan


See yeah, one of the things about technology in general is that everything that succeeds looks very obvious in hindsight


How many people understand blockchain and correlated the impact of quantum computers


We were the first industrial grade


provably quantum secure blockchain based on an NIST recommended XMSS hash-based signature scheme and we're building more


Very smart people and very well-funded organizations are all trying to tackle this


So this is something that's gonna be more important as you cheer passes and it's only gonna continue to uptrend from here


Welcome to the quantum resistant ledger hackathon


Countries Adopting Bitcoin as Legal Tender | The QRL Show Live (News Roundtable)

But we're going to be doing Bitcoin as legal tender and more.


So let's dive in to today's episode.


The world is beginning to witness unprecedented technological growth in areas such as AI in quantum computers.


But what does this mean for Bitcoin and blockchain?


Welcome to the QRL live where we discussed the collision of quantum computing,


blockchain AI and cryptocurrency, some of the most compelling and


emerging technologies today. The field of quantum computers is one of the newest and


most promising areas of science and its implications could very well


disrupt our world in unpredictable ways.


State of the Air machines are being built today that in the future could be as


disruptive as the transistor, television, possibly even the internet.


We can no longer ignore these implications.


What does this mean for Bitcoin and crypto?


Cryptocurrency and therefore blockchain is considered classically secure from


modern supercomputers.


However, there is a potential vulnerability in nearly all blockchain projects.


In that a sufficiently powerful quantum computer running short as algorithm


could effectively take over the addressing scheme, empty wallets,


disrupt applications and cripple entire cryptographic networks.


Scientists, developers and researchers have known about this emerging threat for some time now.


And in response, the MIST has been working since 2016 to develop post-quantum secure cryptography.


In fact, the brightest minds in science and cryptography are working on solutions to this problem right now.


The QRL project is a purpose-built quantum computer resistant, doubly audited,


industrial quality cryptocurrency that uses the NIST recommended XMSS hash-based


signature scheme, which is provably quantum resistant.


So what does this even mean?


It means that we develop the blockchain technology of tomorrow in order to keep your digital assets secure today.


Welcome to QRL Life.


Let's dive in.


Hey, everyone.


Welcome back to another episode of the QRL resistant ledger channel,


the place where you come for the crypto and stay for the quantum.


Welcome to this QRL news roundtable episode.


We have an exciting topic that's been kind of going out all summer.


And that is this idea of countries adopting Bitcoin as legal tender.


So this core conversation is going to be based around Alsalda orbit with them


and spearheading and being the first sovereign nation to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.


But within that conversation, we're also going to be discussing other countries that may or may not also do the same kind of thing moving forward in the future.


Some pros, cons of that, looking at all sorts of topics related to that core of this conversation.


And with me for this discussion is our director of outreach at the QRL, my co-host, Michael Streig.


Michael, it's good to have you with me. It's always fun discussion.


Hello. Hello. Let's have some monetary history.


Fun. We'll talk about some third world countries like Bitcoin.


Is this the beginning of something more to come, something to be adopted?


You know, more so in the future? Or is this just a hiccup on the on a downtrend?


Let's let's talk about it. Let's figure it out.


Perfect. Well, where I think a good starting point for this would be the meat potatoes of this conversation


to be on the part about El Salvador getting into Bitcoin.


But before we go into that, I want to provide a little bit of brief context just on the history of money within El Salvador.


And also it's kind of related to the countries surrounding that area.


Because I think that this provides some important information for why countries like this might be well positioned versus other countries.


The US, say Canada or Western Europe. So if you could start out for the first question for today's news round table,


can you give us a brief history of money in El Salvador from a long ago to present day?


So from the time of the Mayan civilizations using cocoa beans up until then adopting USD in 2001.


Walk us through that and then we can move into the next questions.


Let's do this. Let me share my screen here for a second. Let me know when you can see it.


Yep. We can see your screen now.


This is a wonderful web page. We can do a little bit better.


This is the central bank of the El Salvador.


And they actually put together some monetary history here, which I thought was really interesting.


You can see the link up here.


So essentially they've gone from cocoa beans to Bitcoin.


I mean, that's a little bit of progress right there, right?


So, let's see.


Until the, even though the bartering was a, the bartering, you know,


was a very, was what is probably the first method of exchanging value, right?


To trade something, the use of cocoa beans, exchange value,


value dates all the way back to the Mayan civilization, which I think you alluded to.


Cocoa was considered to be the drink of the gods, if I remember correctly in the Mayan civilization.


But after that, the first coin started to be minted in Spain.


And their monetary history doesn't look that different than that of most other countries.


There's a lot of commonalities.


I didn't get down here all the way to see if there was Roman coin clipping or anything else going on.


But essentially, we're talking about, you know, a smaller country.


They've gone from cocoa beans to Bitcoin.


And that's where we're at today.


If you want to see the history up here, here's a, here's a link right there.


But to answer your question, a little more detail.


Naib, who's the president of Al Salvador, I think he's, here's what I think is happening.


I think he's taking some place from large social media companies and the doing some of the same things that they've been doing.


He's been using even at well, even some of the United States.


Ex presidents have been doing the same thing they've been taking the social media.


But I would say right now the social media is definitely more of the exception that it is the rule.


So not only is this new generation of coming in, having looking at things as, as the older, as older generations are retiring.


But a lot of like things like very old, solidified mantras, such as, I don't know, don't fight the Fed, right?


These are things that for the first time in history are really starting to be challenged in question.


It wasn't until recently that there was technology that could actually, I'm going to just say present, a possible substitute.


All right.


Yeah.


So, you know, so without making it too political.


So part of this has to do with the unprecedented levels of national debt.


United States, for example, what are we 23 trillion, 24 trillion.


I remember, I remember 10 years ago when it was less, like less than 10 trillion and the reserve needed to be.


Reserve needed to extend what they called extraordinarily extraordinary measures in order to be able to continue to pay the debts.


And this has been a reoccurring conversation that's been going on and on and on and on and on.


And I don't know, I don't think a lot of people are really paying attention to it.


But there has to be a bottom at some point.


And then to add to that, to add to that, even with the part of a state country like El Salvador or others that use USD, the one of the frustrations.


Obviously is the fact that there are what this dollar you're getting diluted and even benefiting from it.


And it's in a time where money is pretty machine just keeps going and going.


And so I think it's a combination of that. We can dive into this in a couple of questions about how he is leveraging using Twitter or social media things of that nature.


But I think that one part that he is doing is he is seeing that, hey, you know what, we need a way to be able to bring investment talent here.


And I think he thinks that this is a smart way to do it. If you listen to interviews with President Buchanan, it's he is a ton of conviction in the system of Bitcoin itself.


If you look at El Salvador's history and Nazi to political. But if you look at their past presidents, I think three out of the last four presidents went to jail for things tied to fraud and other things.


And so what it's in talks.


I think one of them, one of them, you know, it's like a success story. Yeah, but anyhow, one of them, I think I don't know. One of them was exile. One of them, you know, pass away or something.


Was on house arrest or something. But they have a bad history of presidents doing fraudulent things with money. So when he talks about Bitcoin, he's like, you know, obviously the whole, you know, don't trust verify.


But we can talk getting that whole ethos a little bit later in the conversation, but I just want to add that one point about why away El Salvador is thinking about this in terms of, you know, with their history of money.


Because when they moved to USD in 2001, their hope was that they were able to be able to prosper more investment would come in and now we're 20 years later than that.


And I think that they're thinking the same type of thing with Bitcoin of, hey, could they be the first one to help spearhead this.


And they're such a small economy compared to most the world. So it would be interesting to see how it plays out. But I'd like to move into the second question because I think you were starting to move into that.


And that is what led up to El Salvador moving in this direction this year with Bitcoin. And how do this kind of all unfold of from then even getting to the point where they put this into law and making Bitcoin and adopting it as legal tender.


So as you as you've alluded to and said quite nicely, I think naive is potentially history will tell, but potentially almost a new class in a new class of politicians, right.


If you do go online, don't trust everything, obviously, but if you really try to get to the root there's there are there are reports of of citizens burning Bitcoin machines and things, you know, and things like that, but if one burns, I mean you're going to see that photo because that's going to make headlots and then he extrude the extremes expand on.


So like I said, he's taking a lot of I think he's a generation. What is he generation.


Yeah, he's born in 1980, 81 is 40 years old, I think, and he's a part of me. Yeah, what. Well, before you dive into this one important note, I wanted to make a him as well just politically just one is that he is the second president that has one on a party that is not one of the two main political parties.


So they're called the way of us ideas, so I think he's the first president since the 80s since I think the president was it's won't say then. And so he's the first president that ran on under a different party as opposed to their two main ones.


He's definitely about new ideas, a populist party that is quote unquote for the people, I know there's obviously a lot of cons and people have a lot of negative things to say about certain things he does, but we're not getting into any of that political stuff today, we're more just talking about.


So I'm not mistaken. I'm not mistaken. I'm not mistaken.


And it coming in at the same time is new technology. So this was bound to happen. I asked six months ago. I think I tweeted Dan held and I say, hey, who do you think is going to be?


Which is the first country you think is going to start dad crypt the brother balance seat and he said, watch my show and you'll find out. Well, I didn't make it to the show. So I wasn't sure what his answer was. But so let's let's knock a little bit how it went down.


So I'll tell it's called it's an app you can get it on Apple. I think it's on Google. It's on Google to cheat. Chivo wallet right. Yeah. So, Chivo I'm not, I'm not sure exactly translation. It sounds, but it from what it sounds like it means like excellent or great or cool something like that.


It seems to be more of a slang word. I know a little bit of Spanish, but I hadn't heard that one before. Fantastic. Nice. Basically, it's basically a positive word in slang.


And interesting. I mean, think about this. The official Bitcoin now being an official currency. You go to a wallet. It's got a slang name. Right. I mean, this is, you know, this is step, this is stepping in a little bit in the sides of realism and not as not as the


IBM 80s blacks, you know, callers. I mean, more like the Mark Zuckerberg in a hoodie. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, there's a there's a brand branding element to it. Yeah.


So you don't know the app. The Chivo wallet. I actually tried to create an account. I am not a citizen of El Salvador, which I found out quite quickly.


So what you do is you download the wallet, you just keep typing your phone number and you provide proof of citizenship and it will generate a wallet for you and you can populate that wallet presumably. I didn't make it that far.


So with that being said, what's kind of next in this in this timeline? And I'm at what is it? It's September 23rd, 2021. I'm going to take a stab at the fact that I


think the opinion that I think Paraguay is going to be next on this long list of countries starting to adopt crypto.


Yeah. We'll dive into that one or two questions because I think there's another one where I want to kind of expand into reasons why countries may or may not adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.


One part I want to get I want to get your take on it and then I kind of want to give mine is what do you foresee happening with this taking place? So what are some of the pros and then what are some of the potential cons that you see with them being the first


one of the things that you're going to be doing in this situation to embrace Bitcoin because there's a lot of what whether this happened in 2021. So when this happens, even though it happened today and they have a lot of, you know, excitement around things happening quick.


If you think about how things transition and change this is not going to be a quick snap and everything has changed and all Salvador is 100% Bitcoin.


And so transition in different aspects where it fits what I'd like to get your take on is and then I'll give you mine after I listen and see what your thoughts are on this.


Give me some positive outlooks for this and then some negatives and then I'll give you my take because I think there's some really interesting ones on the positive side and then obviously there's some negatives but what are your pros and cons with how this moves forward not only for the next six months but you know six years beyond.


It's not 100% clear that Satoshi intended Bitcoin to end up as a world reserve currency. In fact, I think that's one of the same reasons he kept the politics out of it was the same reason as the anonymity once you bring the money and stay.


Yes, that but also let's say his let's say.


I'll just use look let's just say that he was not anonymous everything that surrounded Bitcoin would be anyone that was a contrarian to the technology would focus on a person anyone that was pro tech would focus on the technology right and it would add a lot more potential negative variability so.


It's not clear that he intended it end up as a world reserve currency I think he said that it tried it and it'll let's see if it catches on but it does certainly fall in line with these cipher plot values of the 80s and 90s and they believe that encryption anonymity and cryptography crypto currencies could change the world so.


Early this year.


Earlier this year when El Salvador made these announcements. I think in a lot of ways they're actually doing a world of favor in that rather running one of the biggest monetary experience since the end of the bread and wood system.


And so I think what we're witnessing here is crypto moving from the microscopic be it a person in.


Relative you can actually even consider some institutions to be microscopic to the macro macroscopic which is entire nations.


So as far as pros and cons I think that most of these are pros it should be a wake up call for sovereign nations and no make no mistake they are paying attention.


So this is a monetary experiment it has to be considered an experiment until it's you know until it's actually until it's actually been shown to be successful or unsuccessful.


Which obviously which is why it has a fair launch because you can choose to either be in or out right so the biggest.


And one of the interesting parts is crypto has expedited this concept of central bank digital currencies right.


In which case the digital dollar.


And China's China's already already running their for I believe they're already running their version of a CBDC.


So CBDC is right Bitcoin CBDC is in Bitcoin both digital right but in case if you have not seen the other episodes that's where their similarities start and that's where they end.


So I definitely if you haven't taken a look at the CBDC episode we did I definitely have you take a look at that because it's important.


And I think that's what we're going to understand you know what those are will help you differentiate the misinformation on the Internet for example if you read a title that says.


And so what's the one qualifier that they have in common CBDCs will give you real time transactions interfacing directly with the trend directly with the central bank and with no with no.


And so I think we'd have complete transparency now Bitcoin provides immutability and complete transparency for anyone so what's interesting here is if the nation start to adopt Bitcoin does that mean that their balance sheets are going to be visible on the on the blockchain I mean the addresses are visible.


And so these can be shuffled around and moved around quite you know quite a bit through there's like Bitcoin shufflers you know that some some people do.


Is this going to is this going to bring up one of the advantages could this be the start of actual actual transparency into into balance sheets of giving an example for knocks hasn't been an audited and decades Congress was there what 60 70s something.


Okay there's gold I see a lot of gold.


That's a relief well there's also this thing called fractional gold fractional reserve gold lending right and there's also this also the United States holds gold for other nations as as safety.


Ironically I mean I don't fully understand how exporting your gold is safe but.


German Germany several years ago started taking tons and tons and tons of gold back I think they've got all of the back now.


But I mean the amount of transparency depending on how this ends up could be unprecedented as far as monetary policy and sovereign governments.


No it's a yeah I think mine are kind of based around a lot of my positives there's a couple main ones are pros of how it can kind of play out what I think would be the first one of those being you know I think it's for a country their size I think it's kind of it could if it's for certain nations especially as kind of like the guinea pig of.


It's an obvious experiment of seeing how it works there's certain variables that for countries such as El Salvador or other countries within that region that makes it ton of sense so a lot of people for those of you watching this right now.


If you either live in Western Europe you live in a first world country maybe with a North America.


think about unbanked percentages of the population. In the US right now, the


population of unbanked citizens, meaning you are unbanked, you don't have


access to banks, you don't have access to, you know, same credit card lending,


things of that nature. In the US, it's around five, six percent. In the rest of


Western Europe, it's somewhere in the single digits. In Scandinavia, it's


essentially zero, but in countries such as El Salvador, the percentage of


unbanked people is 70 percent. So that means that there is not inclusion for


70 percent of their population. So they're transacting in a very different


manner and it's just a completely different economy. So one part I want to


actually bring up, I'm not going to agree with the details of going through all


the articles of the El Salvador's legal tender bill, but I do want to bring up a


couple articles within the bill because I think it's really important to


mention on them. So the first one I'm going to bring up is Article 7 here. So I'm


going to read it out and then provide brief context. So in this, the bill, the


Bitcoin bill, it says every economic agent must accept Bitcoin as payment when


offered to him or her by whoever acquires goods or services. So let's say you


are I, we are in El Salvador, we're visiting, we walk into a store, we walk into a


shopfront to a merchant to a restaurant and we want to pay with Bitcoin. This


places the onus on the restaurant, the merchant to have to be able to accept


Bitcoin because they shouldn't be able to exclude us because they don't want to


accept Bitcoin. So that's the first one, that's Article 7 that has to be


paired in President Bupaley has been pretty specific on this. It has to be


paired with articles 8 and 12, which our number 8 is it's on the you know


business end of it. So what this one says is that without prejudice, if you are a


business and we're telling you, hey, you have to accept Bitcoin as payment, if you


want, as soon as you accept that money as payment in Bitcoin, you can move it


right away with the Lightning Network or the fiat to USD and you have the ability


to do that, you know, right away smooth sailing and if there's any fluctuation or


the price volatility drops, the El Salvador will help cover it so you're getting


the same, you know, $5 that goes in, same $5 coming out on your end. So people


can't exclude people from the system and then the third one is Article 12 and


this one helps cover anyone that doesn't have access to a phone or any means


of being able to participate in that. This just kind of covers everyone. So I


just wanted to bring these up really quickly because I think it's important


to talk about one of the positives with this whole concept in, you know, early


experiment with El Salvador adopting Bitcoin as a legal tender is I think the


first positive or pro is the inclusion aspect with so many people that don't have


access there. If you look at remittance payments, I think remittance payments


last year or a four or five billion in all of El Salvador to give you


context for how much that is compared to the economy. I think 18 to 19 billion


is El Salvador's total GDP and so so many remittance payments is for a couple


of you that probably are watching this, you know what remittance payments are


but for maybe one or two of you that don't remittances are just let's say you


have family members that are in U.S. or you're sending money back to El


Salvador. There are predatory interest rates and fees that are associated


with you know Western Union with all of these money transfer services. So when


people make five bucks and they want to send something home, they're taking huge


cuts out of it. Bitcoin can help all solve this problem and just make it easier


flow to and from for these trees. So that's my first one in open this. My second


pro and a reason I think this could work out well from them is from a talent


perspective. So you're already seeing guys like Jack Mallors with Lightning


Network with they have you know not our strike but they call it you know


their strike is their their system. You're seeing tons of other people whether


it's their Bitcoin beach, other people that are you know big talent pool that


are all focused on El Salvador and saying we like we're after this mixed mission.


We have a lot of conviction. So I think there's a lot of potential for talent to


be drawn to El Salvador based on what they're after here. So that's a second one.


And then a third one is just the investment aspect of people maybe wanting to


invest their time, their resources, funding into El Salvador are moving forward


because they believe in the mission that thereafter. So those are some of the


pros. There are obviously cons. They're they're going to any time there's


volatility with Bitcoin when there's prices are going to go down, there's ebbs


and flows. It makes a super easy new story. If let's say a year from now when the


price drops 40% or 30% a day or a week, it makes for a perfect new story to say


hey told you so did work. But if you look back at history, there's countless