This demonstrates why the prize for ‘breaking a 15-bit key’ is essentially meaningless, it’s no better than a random guess. Another person also replaced the elgirithm with a random number generator and that also broke the 15-bit key.
“There are legitimate concerns that quantum computers could become cryptographically relevant before the end of the decade. This is why companies like Google and CloudFlareare accelerating their post-quantum cryptography transitions. The ostensible goal of the QDay Prize was to raise awareness about this. Frustratingly, it has likely achieved the opposite result. It will no doubt be quipped alongside other gotcha-style arguments, like “call me back after you’ve factored 21”.
At the moment, the competition runners seem to be doubling down and trying to defend the utility of the competition. I think that’s a waste of time. The competition failed in the way it was predictably going to fail. Save what credibility you have left and call a duck a duck. Take it on the chin, and be more careful next time.”
