Google says it has developed an even more efficient quantum chip. In theory, it could break bitcoin’s security, but it would take time.
Bitcoin just broke the $100,000 mark. At the same time, technology is developing that can break it. Pablo Gianinazzi
Could quantum computers crack the cryptocurrency bitcoin?
This has been debated in the scientific and crypto world for years. In theory, it is possible to break the encryption mechanics used by bitcoin, but so far humanity has not been able to develop computers fast enough to break the encryption.
However, now the concern of the crypto world has increased. On Monday, Google introduced its new Willow quantum chip, which, according to the company, is at least initially capable of dazzlingly efficient problem solving.
Company tellsthat Willow can solve a task in five minutes that today’s supercomputers would take ten quadrillion years to solve, i.e. longer than the universe has existed. A quadrillion is a number with 24 zeros.
According to the company, Willow is able to do this possibly because it does quantum computing in multiple parallel realities.
Protection is being developed
Google’s results have not yet been properly peer-reviewed in a scientific journal.
However, the Coindesk site that follows the crypto world tellsthat bitcoin investors have had time to worry about whether the encryption and security systems used by the cryptocurrency may be under threat.
In theory, this may be the case, but in practice the threat is remote, Coindesk estimates. The reason is that the computing power of the Willow chip is currently 105 qubits. Cracking the security of the encryption systems used by Bitcoin requires a University of Sussex published in 2021 of the article according to the power of millions of qubits.
According to Coindesk, approximately 120,000 Willow computers would be needed to crack bitcoin’s encryption in one day. 340 Willow computers could crack bitcoin in one year.
Coindesk also quotes the founder of the ethereum cryptocurrency Vitalik Buteriniaaccording to which the crypto world has time to develop even more effective protection methods as quantum computers develop.
– Experts in quantum computing have started to take the operation of quantum computers in the medium term even more seriously. This has implications for the future of Ethereum as a whole, Buterin says, according to Coindesk.