Google said it had achieved a verifiable “quantum advantage” with its Willow chip by completing a calculation that would take classical supercomputers thousands of times longer.
The reported breakthrough may reignite a debate in the cryptocurrency community about the possible detrimental effects that quantum computing could have on Bitcoin, whose operation and security rely on cryptographic methods that quantum computing could potentially challenge.
The chip reportedly simulated quantum chaos in just two hours by measuring order-out-of-time correlators (OTOCs), a key benchmark for tracking the unpredictable behavior of particles.
The researchers say the achievement brings quantum computing closer to practical applications, such as Hamiltonian learning, where quantum machines could help model complex molecular structures beyond the reach of current tools.
For the cryptocurrency world, the advance is noteworthy but not alarming. While quantum computing could one day challenge Bitcoin’s cryptographic underpinnings, most experts say the reality is still some way off.
“Today there is no evidence that any computer, even a classified one, can break modern cryptography,” Kostas Kryptos Chalkias, co-founder and chief cryptographer at Mysten Labs, told CoinDesk in a recent interview. “We’re at least 10 years away from that.”
Shares of Google parent company Alphabet (GOOG) enjoyed a 1.5% rise following the release of its research, before retreating to their previous level. At the time of writing, GOOG sits just above $253, up 0.7% on the day.
bitcoin saw a small boost at the same time as GOOG, rising 0.7% to fall just below $109,000. BTC is down 4% in the last 24 hours, to around $108,150 at the time of writing, according to data from CoinDesk.
