According to investment firm River, it is “crucial” for Bitcoin’s security to address the quantum computing threat early.
Microsoft’s recent breakthrough shortens the timeline to make the leading cryptocurrency quantum-resistant.
Majorana 1, the state-of-the-art chip unveiled by the tech behemoth earlier this week, could potentially enable a million qubits on a single chip. The groundbreaking chip is powered by topological superconductivity, which is a new state of matter.
For now, quantum computing has no practical applications. However, Microsoft’s technology could be a game-changer since it makes it possible to run quantum computers at stable states.
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“This could bring us much closer to practical, large-scale quantum applications,” River said.
The firm has estimated that it would take a million qubits to tackle the majority of industrial-scale problems. This will also make it possible to crack Bitcoin addresses.
“When ran for several days to weeks, a 1-million qubit QC could potentially crack bitcoin addresses via a long-range attack,” River said.
Microsoft has estimated that the 1-million qubit milestone could be reached by the end of the decade.
If hundreds of millions of qubits end up being achieved, 5.9 million BTC will be “at immediate risk.”
As reported by U.Today, Google’s new Willow chip also recently prompted concerns about Bitcoin’s encryption. However, some analysts were quick to dismiss them since it would take a computer with millions of qubits to crack the largest cryptocurrency.
Microsoft’s recent breakthrough is likely to lead to more debates about Bitcoin’s post-quantum future.
