Researchers including a Florida Tech computer scientist have published a method to protect the Bitcoin Lightning Network against quantum computers.
The paper, called PQLN, appeared on arXiv in September. The team was led by Ahmet Kurt, an assistant professor at East Texas A&M University. It describes software changes that add protections against quantum computers that could break today's keys.
The team used the Lightning Network as a proof of concept because its software can be changed without changing Bitcoin itself. A change to Bitcoin would require every separate computer on the blockchain to run new code.
The concern is Shor's algorithm, which has existed for over 30 years without a quantum computer big enough to run it. Florida Tech says such a machine could break a key in a matter of hours. Bitcoin transactions are irreversible, which makes stolen funds nearly impossible to recover.
The Florida angle
Abdullah Aydeger, an associate professor of computer science at Florida Tech in Melbourne, was a member of the team. The university published the news on October 30.
The source reports no Florida funding, hiring or company involvement tied to the work.