The launch of Willow, Google’s extraordinarily advanced quantum computing chip, has sparked speculation about its potential impact on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Some theorists even linked Bitcoin’s recent price fluctuations to this breakthrough in quantum computing technology.
Problems that would take Frontier, the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory supercomputer, an unimaginable 10 septillion years to solve can now be tackled by Willow in just a few minutes.
Despite these concerns, Bitcoin’s security seems to remain intact for the moment.
Bitcoin entrepreneur and advocate Ben Sigman clarified that Willow’s computational capabilities are still far from being able to bypass Bitcoin’s encryption.
Shor’s algorithm, created by American mathematician Peter Shor in 1994, provides a theoretical method for a powerful quantum computer to break the ECDSA encryption used by Bitcoin. However, this process demands a quantum computer with a staggering 1 million qubits. Google’s Willow, while impressive, has only achieved 105 qubits, albeit with reduced error rates.
Furthermore, cracking Bitcoin’s SHA-256 encryption would necessitate an even more formidable quantum computer with millions of physical qubits.
Although quantum computing continues to advance at an astonishing pace, practical applications for such immense computational power are still lacking. For the time being, quantum technology poses no immediate threat to cryptocurrency security.
Nevertheless, some experts emphasize the importance of preparing for a post-quantum era in cryptocurrency to avoid potential vulnerabilities in the future.