
newsAug 25, 20261:02:57pending
One Type of Post-Quantum Cryptography Is Most Popular. Why Is Crypto Trying Out Three?
About this episode
Some crypto products work with multiple chains on different post-quantum paths. NEAR’s Illia Polosukhin and Ledger's Charles Guillemet discuss how they manage that challenge.
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In March, a Google research team published a paper on breaking cryptographic keys with a quantum algorithm, so cautious about the finding that it released only a zero-knowledge proof the algorithm existed. Weeks later, an EigenLayer AI competition improved on that method in roughly 48 hours.
Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, and Charles Guillemet, CTO of Ledger, join Laura Shin for an update on the quantum threat whose deadline could be approaching fast. Both are creating products that deal with multiple chains that all have different post-quantum approaches.
They discuss why, of the three NIST-standardized, post-quantum algorithms, the crypto industry has splintered into different chains working with different ones, whereas most industries are converging on one, called lattice-based. They also debate what to do with Satoshi Nakamoto's bitcoins: do nothing, freeze them, or freeze and tail-emit new bitcoin, an option Guillemet favors even though Bitcoin's leaderless governance makes consensus hard to reach.
Host:
Laura Shin, Host / Unchained
Guests:
Illia Polosukhin - Co-founder of NEAR Protocol
Charles Guillemet - CTO of Ledger
Timestamps
🔐 02:18 Illia and Charles map Shor's algorithm leap and EigenLayer's 48-hour crack
🧠 12:43 Why Matt Corallo's Bitcoin core skepticism reveals NEAR's design edge
📢 18:18 1inch Aqua: see how the shared liquidity platform works at http://unchainedcrypto.com/go/1inch-sn
🔀 23:28 How lattice vs hash based crypto split Ethereum from Bitcoin's plan
🌐 34:46 Charles: why this crypto fight is unique to blockchain, not elsewhere
🛠️ 37:04 Charles walks through Ledger's SDK and hardware wallet quantum roadmap
🔑 44:22 Why 'wrench attacks' expose the physical risk in quantum signing
🕵️ 46:11 Charles debunks the harvest now decrypt later myth for blockchains
₿ 54:52 The Satoshi's coins dilemma: three options and Bitcoin's security budget
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