‘We should migrate now’ to post-quantum encryption, researcher says

Gianluca Di Bella claimed quantum computing already makes encryption and ZK-proofs vulnerable today due to “harvest now, decrypt later” risks.

Gianluca Di Bella, a smart contract researcher specializing in zero-knowledge proofs, says the danger posed by quantum computing isn’t a distant concern — it’s a current one.

Speaking to Cointelegraph at the UN City offices in Copenhagen, Denmark, Di Bella said he believes “we should migrate now” to post-quantum encryption standards. The reason, he explained, lies in so-called “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks, where data is collected and stored until future technology makes decryption possible.

For instance, if the identity of a dissident in a totalitarian country is protected solely by encryption, they want to ensure that the data will remain safe for 10, 15, 20 or more years into the future. Di Bella said that practical commercial quantum computing might be 10 or 15 years away, but cautioned that “big institutions like Microsoft or Google might have a solution in a few years.”

Read more