Google Attains “Quantum Supremacy”; Bitcoin Under Threat?
In the previous week, tech giant Google made a quiet announcement about achieving Quantum supremacy. The announcement started a row of speculations regarding the company’s new achievement having adverse effects on digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, as well as the blockchain technology. So, does the Quantum supremacy have any threats on the emerging crypto scene? Let’s find out.
Google steps ahead in the quantum computing arena
As per The Financial Times’ reports published last week, Google has claimed to reach quantum supremacy. The reports stated that a paper by one of the company’s researchers that outlined the entity’s quantum supremacy achievement was leaked on the website of NASA. However, it was then removed quickly. Apparently, NASA, too, is a part of the project.
According to the Fortune reports, Google has a quantum device that utilizes qubits for performing complex mathematical calculations in about 3 minutes, 20 seconds. Fascinatingly, the report further reveals that the exactly similar equation would’ve taken around ten thousand years for the IBM supercomputer called Summit 3 to calculate.
If that was not enough, the paper also indicates that Google will potentially further its quantum technology at the double exponential rates. Although there are zero formal verifications available on any of the reported claims, the fears about the company breaking all the modern encryptions within the upcoming decade do not seem to die down.
Where does Bitcoin stand then?
As soon as the news about Google’s new feat spread, people took it as a beginning of the end for encryption. Moreover, they also perceived that it would leave Bitcoin and other such assets completely useless.
As per Fortune, the private-public key techniques of encryption, the basis of BTC and other digital currencies, can’t be broken by the quantum computer.
There are several experts as well who feel that Bitcoin or other cryptos are not in threat as some think. Consider Jack Matier’s statement, for instance. Matier has stated that it would be a minimum of 2 to 5 years before BTC is threatened in any manner. He recently made these remarks after deriving data from quantum computers’ qubits. In fact, the timeline of 2-5 years is also an understatement, he said, as there are issues like error-correction, that might prevent calculation accuracy. Matier is one of the team members’ in a project titled Quantum Resistant Ledger that focuses on developing a blockchain network that is resistant to quantum computing.
Another notable personality, Andreas Antonopoulos, who is an educator, coder, and crypto proponent, explained in a video released last year that Bitcoin has the capability of adapting to the quantum threat. He also highlighted that there are more prominent targets present in the world than crypto for any actor of the device to crack.
How the quantum supremacy changes things for the technology space, remains to be seen.
