Kabbalah and Economics

Quantum computers are coming for bitcoin

Máy tính lượng tử sắp ra đời có thể phá vỡ bảo mật của blockchain, đặc biệt là Bitcoin, khi chúng tấn công được elliptic-curve cryptography. Hiện chưa blockchain top-20 nào triển khai post-quantum cryptography, nhưng Ethereum và Algorand đang nỗ lực chuẩn bị.

Lập trình viên nên đọc bài này để hiểu cách bảo vệ hệ thống blockchain của mình trước nguy cơ mất an toàn do máy tính lượng tử, đặc biệt khi biết rằng nhiều dự án vẫn chưa chuẩn bị sẵn sàng và thời gian đến của công nghệ này gần hơn nhiều so với dự đoán trước.

“Total access to all your devices.” Sextortion scammers strike again

A line-by-line breakdown of a current sextortion email campaign, explaining the psychological and fake-technical tactics scammers use to extort money. The email claims the sender installed a Trojan, recorded the victim via webcam, and demands $1,490 in Bitcoin within 48 hours. Each claim is debunked: no specific malware, no proof of access, no actual recording. Key red flags include vague technical language, absence of any evidence, artificial urgency, and objection-handling designed to prevent victims from seeking help. Practical advice: never reply, don't pay, change any exposed passwords, enable 2FA, and delete the message.

Silent Payments Harvest-Now-Decrypt-Later Attack

Silent payments (BIP352) use elliptic curve cryptography to derive unlinkable Bitcoin addresses from a static public key. However, they are vulnerable to a harvest-now-decrypt-later (HNDL) deanonymization attack: if ECDLP is ever broken by a cryptographically-relevant quantum computer, any attacker who stored a silent payment address today could retroactively link all transactions associated with it. Unlike BIP32 HD wallets where xpubs are discouraged from public posting, silent payment addresses are designed to be shared publicly, making them more exposed to this future risk. The attack is limited to cases where the SP address was stored by an attacker, so privately shared addresses are less at risk. Users are advised to treat their SP address with the same caution as a BIP32 xpub.

Double Spending: The Problem That Made Decentralized Digital Money Seem Impossible

Digital information can be copied infinitely, but money requires exclusive ownership — this is the double-spending problem that made decentralized digital currency seem impossible for years. Centralized systems like banks solve it via a trusted ledger, but Bitcoin's 2008 breakthrough eliminated the need for a central authority by combining a distributed blockchain ledger, cryptographic digital signatures, and a Proof of Work consensus mechanism. The result: thousands of strangers can agree on who owns what without trusting any single party. Residual risks remain — unconfirmed transactions, 51% attacks, and weakly secured networks — but the core problem is largely solved, forming the foundation for every blockchain that exists today.