Google has unveiled its Willow quantum computing chip, which some speculate could “crack” Bitcoin. However, cryptocurrency experts argue that decrypting a Bitcoin typically requires around 13 million qubits, far exceeding Willow’s 105 qubits.
On Monday,Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the development of Willow on social media platform X. He stated that the quantum computing chip can reduce errors exponentially as Google scales up using more qubits, cracking a 30-year challenge in the field. In benchmark tests, Willow solved a standard computation in less than five minutes, unlike a supercomputer that would require indefinite time.
A qubit, or a quantum bit, is the basic unit of quantum information in quantum computing. Unlike a classical bit or a binary of 0 or 1, a qubit can represent both 0 and 1, allowing quantum computers to process many combinations simultaneously.
Existential risk?
Twitter user Monetary Commentary pointed out that this development is potentially alarming for Bitcoin and other cryptos that rely on public-key cryptography.
The user explained that Bitcoin’s security is supported by elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), a system designed to be computationally impossible for traditional computers to break within a reasonable timeframe. However, quantum computers like Willow, with exponentially reduced error rates and vast computational power, pose a direct threat to ECC.
Quantum algorithms can factorise large integers and compute discrete logarithms — either of which can break ECC. A machine like Willow that can perform computations in minutes that would take other supercomputers infinitely longer, represents an existential risk to Bitcoin’s security model.
“The idea of quantum computers cracking Bitcoin is still far off. Google’s Willow chip, with 105 qubits, is impressive, but lightyears away from the millions needed to challenge Bitcoin’s security. Think of qubits as the ‘power cores’ — the more you have, the more powerful the computer. Even if Willow’s qubits are ground-breaking and hold promise for addressing challenges like climate modelling and drug discovery, it’s not enough to break Bitcoin’s encryption,” observed Himanshu Maradiya, Chairman and Founder of CIFDAQ.
Obstacles like scaling and error correction remain. However, while the crypto world is building quantum-resistant solutions with the evolution of quantum technology, industries from finance to cybersecurity will need to adapt, ensuring that they are future-ready, he said.
Utkarsh Tiwari, the chief strategy office of KoinBX, resounded this, saying that while some discussions link quantum advancements to the potential for “cracking” it, Bitcoin is based on cryptographic algorithms like SHA-256, which would require more than a million qubits to pose a genuine threat.
“Willow’s capabilities, while impressive, do not yet pose an immediate risk to the cryptographic foundations. The estimated computational power required to compromise Bitcoin’s encryption methods is still far beyond what Willow can achieve,” said Balaji Srihari, Vice-President, CoinSwitch.
A call to action
Quantum computing could theoretically solve cryptographic puzzles faster than classical systems. However, the timeline to achieve such capabilities remains uncertain, says Sathvik Vishwanath, the co-founder and CEO of Unocoin. Willow’s demonstration focuses on specific benchmarks rather than direct cryptographic attacks.
However, Mohammed Roshan Aslam, the co-founder & CEO of GoSats, feels that new cryptography practices and encryption methodology will have to be developed to address any potential challenge posed by Google’s Willow.
Nearly 105 qubits fall short of the necessary 13 million qubits to complete Bitcoin’s decryption, he pointed out. “If subsequent R&D in Google Willow manages to integrate such computational power in the future, cryptography and encryption developments may align with addressing this challenge. Additional software upgrades like hard fork in blockchain may be implemented to address this issue, but that may not be the ideal solution. For now, we have only limited understanding of Google Willow, and crypto and tech stakeholders will have to work in tandem to find an amicable solution for this.”
The Willow development serves as both a breakthrough and a call to action, with quantum computing potentially reshaping financial systems, including Bitcoin, in the future. However, Unocoin’s Vishwanath added, the Bitcoin community remains resilient, focusing on maintaining long-term security and technological advancements to counter potential quantum threats.
