Project Eleven raised $ 6 million to protect Bitcoin
According to the existential threat of quantum computer science, as fears mount that the main cryptography of the network can one day be made obsolete.
The tour was co-directed by Variant Fund and Esteonation, with the participation of Castle Island Ventures alongside founding investors Nebular and Training, according to a press release.
“As quantum IT capacities are advancing, the threat to systems like Bitcoin is no longer theoretical, it is imminent,” said Alex Pruden, CEO of Project Eleven, in a press release.
“This funding allows us to stay ahead of this curve, the creation of tools, standards and the ecosystem required to ensure that digital assets remain safe in a post-health world,” said Pruden.
Earlier this year, Project Eleven launched the Q-Day Prize, offering 1 BTC to the first team that can break the Elliptic Curve (ECC) cryptography (ECC) using a quantum computer.
“We define Q-Day as the moment when quantum computers become capable of breaking the cryptography of the elliptical curve which secures the private keys used by Bitcoin,” said Conor Deegan, co-founder and vice-president of engineering at Project Eleven in a press release.
Project Eleven has also announced the launch of YellowPages A post-health cryptographic register where users can generate hybrid key pairs, create evidence connecting them to their existing BTC addresses and horodatting of this evidence on a large verifiable book.
YellowPages works by asking users to generate a new pair of keys using post-quantum cryptographic algorithms, such as network-based systems, which resist the types of attacks that a future quantum computer could launch.
They then create cryptographic proof connecting this quantum key to their existing BTC address. This proof is calendar and stored in the yellow pages, a public register hosted outside the chain.
It does not move the funds or does not change anything on the Bitcoin blockchain, but creates a verifiable paper track for portfolio that could serve as a help if the cryptography of the elliptical curve is never broken.
“The preparation in advance on Q-Day means ensuring that digital assets remain secure and verifiable in a post-health world. With the yellow pages, we give users free, audited and open-source tools to establish quantum property proactively today,” said Deegan.
Secure the BTC against quantum by consensus
The approach contrasts with solutions like Qramp, a proposal to improve Bitcoin which requires a hard fork migration towards quantum security addresses.
Although effective in theory, Qramp and similar proposals are faced with a barrier raised to adoption because they would require a consensus, a high -level order in a governance environment known for prudence.
Ethereum’s multi-year journey towards proof of evidence and the recent Bitcoin op_return debate is reminders how slow the change in protocol, and some analysts have warned that the slow governance process is a threat itself.
This path would bypass the need for consensus, while also facilitating the mass adoption of quantum defenses.
As Rick Maeda of Presto Research recently warned in an interview with Coindesk, quantum defenses must be constructed linearly, not reactive, because when the threat is real, it is already too late.
The latest Project Eleven movements suggest that some in cryptographic industry take this threat seriously while recognizing the weakness of current methods.
