Bitcoin Hashing

[GridyMa]

Will Bitcoin become worthless if SHA256 cryptography is completely broken?

[krakxn]

What do you mean by broken? You are extrapolating consensus with cryptography.

[GridyMa]

I meant hacked

[krakxn]

How will a mathematical algorithm such as SHA-256 be hacked? That would be assuming a what-if scenario, like saying what would happen if a centralized tech company's database gets leaked(?), or what will happen if a messaging app gets its end-to-end encryption hacked. As it is a single point of failure, but even so, it is still not so easy but a mere possibility.

A mathematical algorithm cannot be broken, sufficient research is adopted let alone the course of time for Bitcoin. Miners crack the algorithm all the time, that is how they mine blocks and get rewards. You cannot break the algorithm.

I suppose a possibility is someone acquiring a super-powerful computer, and at that point it is susceptible to 51% attacks. But I can assure you, if someone does get ahold of one, Bitcoin is certainly not the first problem to be worried about.