Supercomputer El Capitan Debuts! Blockchain Security Faces Challenges, Is BTC in Danger?

The world’s fastest supercomputer is born with astonishing computing power.

Last week, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced that its latest supercomputer, El Capitan, is capable of performing 2.79 exaFLOPS, making it the fastest computer in the world. This significant breakthrough is the result of a collaboration between the laboratory, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, AMD, and the U.S. Department of Energy, and was officially announced at the annual SC Conference in Atlanta, Georgia, securing the top spot on the global Top500 supercomputer list.

Image source: top500 El Capitan topped the global supercomputer TOP500 list

In order to make the concept of this digital more understandable to the general public, laboratory spokesperson Jeremy Thomas said, “To achieve the computing power of El Capitan in one second, it would require over 1 million of the latest iPhones to compute simultaneously, and the height of these phones stacked together would exceed 8 kilometers.” If the same calculation were to be done by humans, it would require 8 billion people worldwide to calculate simultaneously for 8 years to complete. Compared to a typical home computer, El Capitan’s computing speed is about 5.4 million times faster, which enables it to perform various complex tasks, including simulating experiments, developing artificial intelligence, and conducting cutting-edge research.

Image source: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory supercomputer El Capitan

Blockchain security is followed closely, experts: no need to worry in the short term.

With the advent of El Capitan, concerns about supercomputers cracking the blockchain and destroying networks like BTC and Ethereum have resurfaced in the cryptocurrency industry. However, blockchain encryption experts believe that such concerns are unnecessary. Yannik Schrade, CEO and co-founder of Swiss blockchain company Arcium, explains that even with a supercomputer like El Capitan, it would still take 10 billion years to crack a 256-bit private key, due to the special computational asymmetry of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) used by blockchains like BTC and Ethereum.

Schrade further explains that supercomputers still use traditional binary arithmetic to process data, and their powerful performance mainly comes from parallel computing, the ability to process multiple tasks simultaneously. Although this computational mode is powerful, it is still difficult to break through its defense when facing modern encryption systems. In contrast, quantum computers use quantum bits (qubits) for computation, which can leverage quantum mechanics principles such as superposition and Quantum Entanglement. This represents a completely different dimension of computation.

Quantum computing is the real threat, experts urge early response.

Duncan Jones, the cybersecurity director of British quantum computing developer Quantinuum, pointed out that the real threat comes from quantum computing.

“Modern encryption systems cannot be cracked by any traditional systems, including supercomputers. However, the threat posed by quantum computers is much more serious!”

He predicts that within the next ten years, there may be quantum computers powerful enough to crack the algorithms used in today’s blockchain.

San Jose State University engineering professor Ahmed Banafa also warned that the blockchain industry often overly trusts its security and overlooks potential vulnerabilities.

“Many proponents equate the immutability of blockchain with invulnerability, but this view ignores the risks posed by advanced technologies such as quantum computing, as well as practical issues such as software vulnerabilities.”

He emphasized that although the blockchain industry has recognized the potential risks of quantum computing, there are still few platforms that adopt quantum defense measures (such as quantum key distribution), which makes them vulnerable to future threats.

The true purpose of El Capitan: nuclear weapons simulation and artificial intelligence research

Despite concerns from the blockchain and cybersecurity industries, the laboratory emphasizes that El Capitan will not be used to crack blockchain encryption systems. Instead, its main focus will be on nuclear explosion simulations and artificial intelligence research, including material exploration, design optimization, advanced manufacturing, and training intelligent AI assistants based on confidential data.

Thomas said that although physical nuclear tests are no longer conducted in Los Alamos, New Mexico, as depicted in the Academy Award-winning film ‘Oppenheimer’, virtual testing still has its limitations.

Image source: The New York Times J. Robert Oppenheimer

“Simulation will never be completely accurate, but we use increasingly powerful computing power to perform thousands of simulations to drop the uncertainty in the model. We also invest a lot of effort in verifying the accuracy of the code and have a large amount of underground test data before the end of nuclear testing in 1992, which gives us confidence in the reliability of the code.”

So for those who are worried that ‘once supercomputers come out, the Block chain industry will be overturned, and all Cryptocurrency will no longer exist’, they can rest assured that the spirit of encryption basically will not die, and the industry will not perish. But whether ‘the price of the currency will return to zero’ is a different story.

[Disclaimer] The market is risky, and investment should be cautious. This article does not constitute investment advice, and users should consider whether any opinions, perspectives, or conclusions in this article are consistent with their specific circumstances. Responsibility lies with the investor.

“Supercomputer El Capitan is coming! Blockchain security may face challenges, is BTC in danger?” This article was first published in “encryption city”