A growing global competition between technology companies, independent scientists and novice programmers is pushing the boundaries of quantum computing with the aim of breaking Bitcoin’s encryption.
This technological escalation dates back to March 30, when Google’s Quantum Intelligence division published a highly influential technical document. In the report, compiled by CriptoNoticias, the North American company estimates that a quantum computer with less than 500,000 physical qubits (the basic quantum processing unit) could decrypt Bitcoin’s public key in less than nine minutes.
This statement represents an optimization of nearly 20 times compared to the most efficient calculation previously recorded by the academic community.
However, the technology company has decided not to disclose the specific design of the quantum structures that make such computer attacks possible. To verify claims without exposing the original code, Google implemented cryptographic techniques This is known as a zero-knowledge proof.
The trust situation surrounding Google’s experiment became complicated when security firm Trail of Bits discovered critical vulnerabilities in zero-knowledge verification software used by multinational companies. Due to these failures, Cryptographically indistinguishable forged evidence Of the regular ones.
Although Google quickly fixed its code and confirmed that its original scientific conclusions were not changed by this technical flaw, the incident affected various independent experts. A more rigorous and detailed technical review will begin.
Moreover, this theoretically opaque barrier has set off alarm bells within the digital security landscape and set very clear public goals. The publication of the final results served as a catalyst to galvanize the global community of cryptographers. Compete openly to reproduce discoveries.
Who is competing to “break” Bitcoin?
Among the competitors, French researcher Andre Schlottenlohr stands out. He was able to re-engineer and exceed the efficiency of Google Quantum AI’s quantum attack circuitry. Maintained strict commercial confidentiality. This advancement reveals that decentralizing scientific research with the help of a swarm of artificial intelligence (AI) is significantly reducing the estimated time it takes to test network security.
According to this expert, his research was directly focused on optimizing Scholl’s quantum algorithm to work on the secp256k1 scheme, which corresponds to the specific elliptic curve that Bitcoin uses to ensure the protection of digital signatures. The main purpose of this approach is to Derive private key from public address Use the least amount of resources and time possible.
Data published by Schlottenlauer revealed that his design achieved a 6.5% to 10% reduction in so-called Toffoli doors compared to the model Google had in stock, at the cost of a slight increase in doors. The amount of qubits required is only 1.5%.
The Toffoli gate represents the most computationally intensive operation within Shor’s algorithm and directly determines the potential attack speed. In theory, reducing the number of these gates means that attacks can be made significantly faster, or even more viable, with a smaller technical infrastructure.
Other competitors that improve on Shor and “disrupt” Bitcoin are within organizations like EigenCloud. There, an undergraduate student with no formal training in quantum systems succeeded in doubling the efficiency of Google’s circuit. Use only automated AI agents.
A few days later, another researcher at the company, who was only 18 years old, Google’s confidential model reaches 80% efficiency Through a $10,000 investment in a proprietary intelligent agent system and cloud computing capacity.
However, the main competitor is Google, and secrecy is being attempted. Advanced tests to “destroy” Bitcoin. However, this silence did not last long, as on June 1, researcher Schlottenloher shared his findings on the open-access scientific repository arXiv.
A reminder about quantum progress
The analytical community remains cautious regarding these findings. Schlottenlauer documents Does not change the physical hardware projection It’s not required, and it doesn’t change the nine-minute runtime that Google engineers originally envisioned.
It is likewise emphasized that this new scientific research is in preliminary stages. Has not undergone a formal review process At the time of its spread, it was a pair. Therefore, any real impact on the Bitcoin network is conditional on the existence of a physical hardware architecture, which is not detailed in the text.
Either way, this evolution of computers has sparked deep debates about security policy and trade secrets. Alex Thorne, head of research at Galaxy, analyzed the implications of this phenomenon, showing that while this discovery does not immediately give attackers a real ability to break Bitcoin’s security, it does reveal the immense power of decentralized research when carried out by swarms of digital agents.
The race to breach the cryptographic foundations that underpin Bitcoin is currently taking place in a decentralized, global virtual environment that connects corporate research labs and open science repositories. The combination of decentralized research networks and advanced AI tools represents a monopoly on innovation. It’s no longer limited to big Silicon Valley companies.
This new scenario of constant technological siege highlights the need for developers and the Bitcoin community to accelerate update plans, as they have done so far with BIP 360 and 361. Implementing quantum-resistant protocols In the medium term, it ensures protocol immutability against the future of computation and the impending Q-Day threat.
(Tag translation) Bitcoin (BTC)
