Bitcoin Under Broken Crypto Primitives

Abstract

Abstract Bitcoin’s security relies solely on cryptographic primitives, namely on digital signatures, hash functions and Merkle trees. This chapter discusses the security of the Bitcoin system if some primitives become weaker due to advances in cryptanalysis, an increasing computing power of the adversaries or improper software implementations. The chapter starts with a general overview of the primitives in use, explaining possible attack strategies against each of them, which is followed by combined attack strategies. The chapter closes by showing the consequences of Grover’s and Shor’s quantum algorithms for Bitcoin’s security.