It could actually be 20 times easier for quantum computers to break Bitcoin, says Google

Google has just dropped a new search documentAnd Bitcoin Maxis may want to do quick calculations. The quantum team of the technology giant found that the rupture of RSA encryption protecting everything from your bank account to your Bitcoin portfolio may need 20 times less quantum resources than before.

“Transition planning to quantum security cryptosystems requires understanding the cost of quantum attacks against vulnerable cryptosystems,” wrote the quantum researcher from Google Craig Gidney. “In Gidney + Ekerå 2019, I co-published an estimate indicating that the whole RSA of 2048 bits could be taken into account in eight hours by a quantum computer with 20 million noisy qubits. In this article, I considerably reduces the number of qubits required.”

“I estimate that an integer RSA of 2048 bits could be taken into account in less than a week by a quantum computer with less than a million noisy qubits,” said Gidney.

“This is a decrease of 20 times in the number of qubits in our previous estimate,” said the Google researcher in a Official blog article.

But it’s not like it would happen soon. For the context, the Condor of IBM (the most powerful quantum computer to date) is booming 1,121 qubits While the sycamore of Google Works out of 53. So your parts are always safe, for now. The trajectory is what matters, and it points to a direction which should make anyone who holds the crypto sit and be careful.

The breakthrough, known as Google, comes from two places: “better algorithms and a more intelligent error correction.” On the side of the algorithm, the researchers understood how to make calculations for modular exponentials – heavy mathematical lifting in encryption – twice as quickly, while error correction is possible because the tripled team The density of the logical qubit space by adding a new layer of error correction, effectively packing more useful quantum operations in the same physical space.

They also deployed something called “Magic state cultivation” -, in addition a tip for making quantum ingredients special (called T states) stronger and more reliable, so that quantum computers can perform complex tasks more efficiently without wasting additional resources – to reduce the necessary workspace for basic quantum operations.

Why should Bitcoin holders worry about quantum computers?

Bitcoin is based on the cryptography of the elliptical curve, which works on mathematical principles similar to the RSA. If quantum computers can break RSA faster than expected, the Bitcoin safety calendar has just compressed. 256-bit encryption of cryptocurrency is stronger than the old RSA keys that Google has studied, but not as much as you could hope when you find an exponential scaling.

And there are already experts who try to find ways to apply quantum technology to break Bitcoin.

As before reported by DecipherProject 11, a quantum computer research group, launched a Bitcoin bonus worth almost $ 85,000 for anyone can break even a simplified version of Bitcoin encryption using a quantum computer. They test keys ranging from 1 to 25 bits, compared to 256 bits of bitcoin encryption, but it is a question of following progress.

“Bitcoin’s safety is based on the cryptography of the elliptical curve. Quantum computers performing Shor algorithm will eventually break it,” said project 11 when they announce their challenge. “We test how urgent the threat is.”

The security implications extend beyond the crypto. RSA and similar systems underlie global secure communications, from banks to digital signatures. Google noted that opponents could already collect encrypted data to decipher later once the quantum computers are available, they are therefore preparing for this imminent future.

“Google therefore quantified traffic in both chrome and internal, going to the standardized version of ML-KEM once it has become available,” said Google.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology released Post-quantum cryptography standards last year and recommended that you delete vulnerable systems after 2030. Google research suggests that chronology may need acceleration.

IBM has plans for a Quantum computer of 100,000 qubit By 2033, a partnership with the University of Tokyo and the University of Chicago. As to aims to provide a fully tolerant quantum computer with breakdowns by 2029. These targets suddenly seem more important given the results of Google.

Another thing to approach is the continuous management of quantum execution machines. The hypothetical machine with a million skitches that Google described should run continuously for days, maintain extremely low error rates and coordinate billions of operations without interruption. Current quantum computers can barely maintain consistency For minutes, so again, do not panic.

The quantum threat is not immediate, but it accelerates faster than expected. The cryptographic community has already started working on quantum -resistant solutions. Solana developers presented A quantum resistant vault using signatures based on hash, while the co-founder Ethereum Vitalik Buterin propose Provide the current code blockchains To protect from quantum threats.

It therefore seems more likely that we will see a kind of anti -quantum hard fork in the future before seeing the first quantum hacking of the Bitcoin blockchain – crossed barges.