Comment by ogogmad
3 days ago
As I've mentioned to another commenter, Bitcoin relies only on the existence of an arbitrary DSA. Quantum computing-resistant DSAs have been known since the 1970s. I reckon that swapping out Bitcoin's current DSA with a quantum-resistant one would not count as a major overhaul. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43113682
It would probably require a “hard fork,” which is generally considered to be a major change in the Bitcoin world.
All the best,
I am curious as to whether this update would need a hard fork or soft fork. Soft = backwards compatible, meaning nodes on the old code still talk to the network as before, and new nodes have extra features (I think?). This update is adding a layer of complexity to the DSA but not adding a new feature (soft fork) but requiring that the updated DSA be used (hard fork). Maybe allow either to be used in the meantime and then if there is an exploit in the future, we're already half way to consensus on the new fork?