Study Estimates ~29,600 Physical Qubits Could Crack Bitcoin Keys in About 1 Hour

Odaily reports: Research from quantum computing company Alice & Bob estimates that a fault-tolerant quantum computer with approximately 29,588 physical qubits could solve the 256-bit elliptic curve cryptography problem used by Bitcoin in about 61.8 minutes. This problem underpins the digital signatures used to authorize Bitcoin transactions. The findings are theoretical resource estimates and do not mean that existing quantum computers already have the capability to crack it.

The research also estimates that 22,593 physical qubits could crack RSA-2048 encryption in about 3.14 days. The calculations use cat qubits technology designed to reduce quantum errors, combined with more efficient error-correcting codes and improvements to Shor's algorithm.

If a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could derive private keys from publicly exposed public keys, the relevant Bitcoin could face risks of unauthorized signatures and asset theft. The estimated cracking time is still longer than Bitcoin's average block interval of about 10 minutes; approximately 6.9 million Bitcoin may be at risk because their corresponding public keys have already been exposed. (Bitcoin.com News)