Blockchain Developers Are Racing to Protect Against the Quantum Threat. Here's What It Means for Bitcoin and Ethereum Investors.
Google says breaking Bitcoin's signatures needs fewer than 500,000 qubits. The best machines running today have about 2,500.
Blockchain developers are racing against the clock to safeguard against the burgeoning threat posed by quantum computers. Imagine a locksmith who can deduce the exact shape of a lock's key simply by observing the exterior. This is akin to what a sufficiently advanced quantum computer could do to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) networks.
Every cryptocurrency transaction involves a public key, which can be reverse-engineered to reveal the corresponding private key using a powerful quantum machine. Today, such a computer would take a normal computer longer than the universe has existed to crack the code. However, a quantum computer running Shor's algorithm could do it in a matter of hours.
Google Quantum AI, a division of Alphabet, has done the math, estimating that between 1,200 to 1,450 logical qubits would be needed, with a runtime of 18 to 23 minutes, assuming superconducting hardware. The Ethereum Foundation and Stanford researchers have signed off on these findings.
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