谷歌的新型量子晶片可以破解比特幣加密，但威脅可能被誇大了

本月早些時候，Google發布了一款名為 Willow 的全新量子晶片。該公司表示，這款105 量子位元晶片——是這家科技巨頭之前的Sycamore 晶片量子位元數量的兩倍——在五分鐘內完成了一次計算，這將需要現代超級電腦“令人難以置信”的10 億年時間。

Earlier this month, Google announced a brand-new quantum chip.

本月早些時候，Google發布了一款全新的量子晶片。

The 105-qubit chip — that's double the qubit count of the tech giant's preceding Sycamore chip — completed a computation in under five minutes that would take a modern supercomputer a "mind-boggling" 10 septillion years, the company said.

該公司表示，這款105 量子位元晶片——是這家科技巨頭之前的Sycamore 晶片量子位元數量的兩倍——在五分鐘內完成了一次計算，這將需要現代超級電腦“令人難以置信”的10 億年時間。

The news also reignited a conversation surrounding the security of blockchains, the distributed ledgers that run digital currencies like Bitcoin. Could a future quantum computer break the cryptocurrency's encryption, allowing thieves to abscond with unfathomable sums?

該消息還重新引發了圍繞區塊鏈安全性的討論，區塊鏈是運行比特幣等數位貨幣的分散式帳本。未來的量子電腦能否破解加密貨幣的加密，讓竊賊攜巨款潛逃？

As Fortune reports, researchers at the University of Kent found in a yet-to-be-peer-reviewed study that the risk is very real. In fact, just the downtime required to update the blockchain to protect itself from an encryption-breaking quantum computer could extend to 76 days — and the resulting losses would likely be staggering.

根據《財星》雜誌報道，肯特大學的研究人員在一項尚未經過同行評審的研究中發現，這種風險是非常真實的。事實上，僅更新區塊鏈以保護自身免受加密量子電腦的攻擊所需的停機時間就可能延長至 76 天，而由此造成的損失可能是驚人的。

"Bringing your technology down... can be very, very costly, even if it’s on for a few minutes or a few hours," coauthor and senior lecturer at the University of Kent Carlos Perez-Delgado told Fortune.

肯特大學高級講師卡洛斯·佩雷斯-德爾加多（Carlos Perez-Delgado）向《財富》雜誌表示：「即使只持續幾分鐘或幾個小時，讓你的技術癱瘓……成本也可能非常非常高。

"If I had a large quantum computer right now, I could essentially take over all the Bitcoin," he added. "By tomorrow, I could be reading everybody’s email and getting into everybody's computer accounts, and that’s just the fact."

「如果我現在有一台大型量子計算機，我基本上可以接管所有的比特幣，」他補充道。 “到明天，我可能會閱讀每個人的電子郵件並進入每個人的電腦帳戶，這就是事實。”

But exactly how imminent this threat is remains highly debatable. In an update last week, AllianceBernstein analysts argued that Bitcoin contributors should "start preparing for the quantum future."

但這種威脅到底有多迫在眉睫仍有爭議。在上週的更新中，AllianceBernstein 分析師認為，比特幣貢獻者應該「開始為量子未來做準備」。

However, "any practical threat to Bitcoin seems decades away," the analysts wrote.

然而，「對比特幣的任何實際威脅似乎還需要幾十年的時間，」分析師寫道。

Researchers have similarly argued that it would take quantum computers with millions of qubits to break Bitcoin encryption in a single day.

研究人員也同樣認為，需要擁有數百萬個量子比特的量子電腦才能在一天內破解比特幣加密。

Analysts have also found that SHA-256 encryption, which serves as the security measure protecting Bitcoin miners today, could eventually be cracked — albeit with quantum hardware that hasn't even been dreamed up yet.

分析師還發現，作為當今保護比特幣礦工的安全措施的 SHA-256 加密最終可能會被破解——儘管目前還沒有想到量子硬體。

On a broader scale, apart from cracking cryptocurrencies, Google's latest quantum chip also falls woefully short of doing anything actually useful as of right now.

從更廣泛的範圍來看，除了破解加密貨幣之外，Google最新的量子晶片目前還遠遠無法做任何實際有用的事情。

"The particular calculation in question is to produce a random distribution," German physicist and science communicator Sabine Hossenfelder tweeted in response to Google's recent announcement. "The result of this calculation has no practical use."

德國物理學家兼科學傳播者薩賓·霍森菲爾德 (Sabine Hossenfelder) 在推特上回應谷歌最近的聲明時表示：“所討論的具體計算是產生隨機分佈。” “這個計算結果沒有實際用途。”

In short, while many agree that quantum computers could pose a growing threat to the cryptography behind Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency community could still have plenty of time to implement changes to protect the blockchain.

簡而言之，雖然許多人認為量子電腦可能對比特幣背後的密碼學構成越來越大的威脅，但加密貨幣社群仍有足夠的時間來實施變革以保護區塊鏈。

Which is easier said than done. As Fortune points out, Bitcoin's decentralized nature could make pushing an encryption update an immense task.

說起來容易做起來難。正如《財星》雜誌指出的那樣，比特幣的去中心化性質可能會使推動加密更新成為一項艱鉅的任務。

But that doesn't mean the cryptocurrency shouldn't do it. In an October blog post, Vitalik Buterin, the cofounder of the prominent cryptocurrency Ethereum, argued that advancing quantum computing tech could have "consequences across the entire Ethereum roadmap."

但這並不意味著加密貨幣不應該這樣做。在 10 月的一篇部落格文章中，著名加密貨幣以太坊的聯合創始人 Vitalik Buterin 認為，先進的量子計算技術可能會「對整個以太坊路線圖產生影響」。

"The indisputable fact that nobody can argue is that when we do get there," Perez-Delgado told Fortune, "our current securities, the cybersecurity systems — which includes everything from Bitcoin to email — will be in great danger."

佩雷斯-德爾加多對《財星》雜誌表示：「無可爭辯的事實是，當我們真正實現這一目標時，我們現有的證券、網路安全系統——包括從比特幣到電子郵件的一切——將面臨巨大危險。

More on Bitcoin: Man Accused of Being Satoshi Nakamoto Goes Into Hiding

有關比特幣的更多資訊：被指控為中本聰的男子躲藏起來

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