Is Willow (Google new quantum computer chip) going to kill Bitcoin?

[apogio]

This is what I expect will happen to Bitcoin in the event of a Quantum Computer powerful enough to 'kill Bitcoin'.  A solution will be found and we will simply move on after a few minutes, hours or days of panic.  That is it.

With the additional benefit that we 're kind of prepared for that, in a sense that we know it is possible, so we can take the proper precautionary measures (if that's a proper term).
In 2010, the bug was discovered out of nowhere.
That's not the case with quantum computing.

[telesnake]

The two biggest risks to crypto are 1) government outlaws it, and 2) quantum computing cracks it.

Quantum computing will make all traditional encryption obsolete, all crypto currencies will crash to zero.  It's not a matter of IF the powers that be want to use it to crack crypto, but the mere possibility makes crypto a poor choice as a storage of wealth and the value will plummet very quickly to zero.

It is possible a quantum layer could be added to existing blockchain tech.  It's also possible the coins we own will go extinct and be replaced by quantum blockchain.

[Alphakilo]

Will this chip be able to break the cryptography behind BTC addresses so quickly that it will make the entire BTC network insecure?

The news broke out yesterday and threw bitcoin noobs in panic.

Here's what you need to know about quantum computing as explained by one of the experts in bitcoin, andreas antonopoulos in his YouTube Channel Bitcoin Q&A: Is Quantum Computing a Threat?

I'll stop with this insightful sentence in which he made, We will know if quantum computing like Willow, Google's new quantum computer chip is a threat to bitcoin when Satoshi coins move.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

Willow is Google's 2nd chip and Sycamore was their 1st one. Both are RESEARCH TEST ARTICLES made to test one specific thing - error correction. They are not something even close to what a fully functional QC will use. Details on the 1st chip: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1666-5

Link to original Google news release https://blog.google/technology/research/google-willow-quantum-chip/
Opening summary of the article:

Our new chip demonstrates error correction and performance that paves the way to a useful, large-scale quantum computer

At the bottom of the article Google gives a roadmap to a real, functional, QC. So far Willow satisfies step-2 of 6 with step-6 being the 1st large scale true QC that is able to be used to solve real-world problems.
FYI: again per the article, it took Google 19 years to get from step-1 to step-2 so...

[sunsilk]

I've been hearing this since I was new to Bitcoin and that really scared the hell of me. But as time passes by, if there have been talks of it before about decrypting and destroying Bitcoin and its algorithm, it should have been done long ago.

As far as I know there have been in existence of quantum computers and for sure the agencies in the US and other top countries have been using it. So, why they shouldn't just use it for their own sake if they want to deal or destroy Bitcoin's network?

Because they can't, and these are all talk and it is going to cost them a lot of money to do so than whatever will benefit them after doing it.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

As far as I know there have been in existence of quantum computers and for sure the agencies in the US and other top countries have been using it.

Wrong.
So far all 'Quantum Computers' in existence are what are called Test Articles. They have been built to test & verify all of the things that will go into eventually making actual QC's. The earliest ones were 'simply' built to test if quantum logic gates (Qubits) could even be produced (yes) and then verify and characterize how they are actually working. From there came test machines to figure out how to actually use and interconnect the gates into functional logic circuits.

To compare with classical semiconductors development, those earlier efforts were like first discovering what a diode is, learning how to make one (and the media calling it a 'computer'), then connecting 2 together to make the most basic OR gate and again the media calling that 'A Computer'. Neither most certainly are not by any stretch of the imagination a 'Computer'.

Only in the past 2-3 years have folks been able to make arrays of qubits large enough to allow the most basic testing of quantum logic circuits and how to actually use the circuits.

Yes, for one IBM has their IBM Quantum test platform that has up to 127 qubit gates that can be used but again, so far that is used only to test bits and pieces of what will go into QC programming NONE of them to-date are able to actually run a program or model to solve things with real-world significance.

[AndrewWeb]

Google has just announced Willow, their first quantum computer chip. It's incredibly powerful, having solved in less than five minutes a computational problem that would take the fastest computer available right now more than 10 septillion years (a number that vastly exceeds the age of the Universe). Will this chip be able to break the cryptography behind BTC addresses so quickly that it will make the entire BTC network insecure?

115,792,089,237,316,195,423,570,985,008,687,907,852,837,564,279,074,904,382,605,163,141,518,161,494,336 is the total number of different Bitcoin private keys. How fast can it try them all ?

[NotFuzzyWarm]

115,792,089,237,316,195,423,570,985,008,687,907,852,837,564,279,074,904,382,605,163,141,518,161,494,336 is the total number of different private keys. How fast can it try them all ?

Eternity because it is NOT a "Quantum Computer". It is a chip created to test one thing - data error correction. PERIOD. Perhaps try reading back a bit..... ref https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5522217.msg64833837#msg64833837

[kotajikikox]

Will this chip be able to break the cryptography behind BTC addresses so quickly that it will make the entire BTC network insecure?

The answer right now is no. Thankfully, and this is a testament to how secure bitcoin’s network is, no matter how more advanced this new quantum computer chip it is still not enough to break bitcoin’s network. Maybe in the future it will be able to advance more and would be able to destroy bitcoin but by then I am sure that bitcoin’s network has just gone stronger especially in retaliation or against these strong quantum computer chip. So simple answer is that bitcoin now can develop protecting itself from the threats of this quantum chip but the quantum chip still needs time to break down bitcoin.

[X-ray]

is quantum computer even can be used for something practical these days last time I heard it's just very inconsistent and full of error that they need constant error correction, I don't believe we've reached practicality.

Millions of qubits is needed to break the block of Bitcoins, created by using SHA-256 and ECC, and Willow has generated only 105 qubits. At least for now, even though quantum computing has a lot of potentials according to Willow nevertheless, the criticisms regarding Bitcoin are exaggerated and in fact, the real-world applications differ considerably from the theoretical aspect.

https://blockonomi.com/googles-willow-quantum-chip-a-step-forward-in-computing-but-bitcoin-remains-secure/

wonder if horizontal scaling of these quantum computers might be a concern because they can just run multiple instance of it and reached more than 105 qubits, but we all know things gonna be costly and they'd be just wasting their money.

[tread93]

Is a new found exploit going to kill Bitcoin?  Possibly.

Yet, in 2010 somebody was able to find a bug good enough to produce 184 BILLION BITCOINS for themselves.  Did Bitcoin die?  No, a solution was found and the problem was eventually solved.

This is what I expect will happen to Bitcoin in the event of a Quantum Computer powerful enough to 'kill Bitcoin'.  A solution will be found and we will simply move on after a few minutes, hours or days of panic.  That is it.

Wow I never knew that! Crazy. I think you're right though because the bitcoin devs are very savvy and the bitcoin community is very savvy and eventually we will just come to a consensus and it will be the solution and move on just like we always have. I also think that what Fuzzy said is so true, who cares about Bitcoin at that point they can take down the biggest financial titans/markets in the world (at least for now ;P). The way Satoshi designed this currency system surely it would be impossible to "kill Bitcoin"

[virtual_enthusiasm]

Quantum computers will never work, because "nothing" can travel fastest than light, not even information. Only God can have all the answers, not a machine

[o48o]

I have to agree with Fuzzy. Not sure why there is an assumption that those who, may potentially, wield said computational resources would just automatically try to "kill bitcoin"?

BTC has grown, exponentially, without a doubt. That doesn't mean that a company, to the likes of Google, would want to hinder it's evolution.

This is not about what they want, but what they could. And if they could, others are not that much behind. While i share the idea that they have no interest "killing" bitcoin, this is about capability to kill it. And quantum tech is nowhere near of being a threat. And when it does, at that point bitcoin code will most likely been modified to quantum resistant.

But that's pointless modification to even plan yet, as any practical quantum threat is so far away, that we don't even know if bitcoin exists when that becomes relevant.

[headingnorth]

I think Quantum Computing is overhyped nonsense just as Artificial Intelligence is.

For example, many companies use AI for customer for example Amazon, Google, Microsoft, all use AI for customer service chat and phone support.

I have probably used these AI bots hundreds of times for various customer service issues over the phone or through chat and I can't remember a single time they were able to actually answer a single question and solve my problem no matter how simple it was. Whereas a human would have resolved it in within seconds or minutes. AI voice and chat bots are completely useless but every company forces you to engage with one before they let you talk to a real person.

100% of the time the AI voice or chatbot ended up directing me to a real person because it said it couldn't understand my question that any 12 year old human would have understood. The biggest tech companies in the world can't even  create a simple customer service AI bot that is remotely useful how do you expect them to do anything that is more demanding.

[apogio]

AI voice and chat bots are completely useless but every company forces you to engage with one before they let you talk to a real person.

100% of the time the AI voice or chatbot ended up directing me to a real person because it said it couldn't understand my question that any 12 year old human would have understood. The biggest tech companies in the world even can't create a simple customer service AI bot that is remotely useful how do you expect them to do anything that is more demanding.

Cheers to the truest post of the day! I do this too.

I only wish humanity spent more time in
(a) reducing financial injustice,
(b) find a cure to chronic diseases,
but, instead of that, we create robots for socializing (like Sophia for instance).

And not only do we spend thousands of hours on reasearch for creating these robots, but we also spends millions of dollars for that.

[o48o]

I think Quantum Computing is overhyped nonsense just as Artificial Intelligence is.

For example, many companies use AI for customer for example Amazon, Google, Microsoft, all use AI for customer service chat and phone support.

I have probably used these AI bots hundreds of times for various customer service issues over the phone or through chat and I can't remember a single time they were able to actually answer a single question and solve my problem no matter how simple it was. Whereas a human would have resolved it in within seconds or minutes. AI voice and chat bots are completely useless but every company forces you to engage with one before they let you talk to a real person.

100% of the time the AI voice or chatbot ended up directing me to a real person because it said it couldn't understand my question that any 12 year old human would have understood. The biggest tech companies in the world even can't create a simple customer service AI bot that is remotely useful how do you expect them to do anything that is more demanding.

That's because they aren't AI in a way people usually connect the term with. Even best "AI" chatbots out there, like chatgpt are just combining are language prediction programs with a pattern recognition. They don't understand what you say, they just predict patterns. In a way they mimic what normal conversation should look like.

Road to actual "intelligent", learning or self aware AI, is far away and has all sorts of roadblocks that we haven't even started to tackle yet. Even though AI and quantum computing are in no way comparable, quantum computing computing is actually way closer to any practical solution then "intelligent" AI. Because quantum computing has already solved major problems. AI tech is basically just mimicking people, it haven't done any real break troughs when it comes to understanding what humans are talking about.

But quantum computers is in really early stage, and could take ages before it becomes a huge issue. But it will be earlier then any "self aware" AI, that's for sure.

[Synchronice]

What the OP is so excited about is that for the 1st time error rates has become acceptable as verified by the RCS simulation https://research.google/blog/validating-random-circuit-sampling-as-a-benchmark-for-measuring-quantum-progress/  Oh - and Willow is not their 1st chip. It is their 2nd one.

Fine. However there is still not a single QC application program that has *any* real-world use and per the Google researchers there are still several more milestones to be crossed before there ever will be any. It took over 19 years to solve the error rate problem, odds are it will take several decades more to cross the remaining milestones.

Once technology does progress enough for real-world applications:
a. QC's will not be available outside of research organizations and 3-letter gov agencies for many many years meaning hackers will be locked out for a long long time.

b. As others have already said, once QC's *are* widely available, crypto coins will be far down the list of targets. The world's banking and information systems will be much higher on the list. Those being attacked will make attacks on crypto of insignificant importance.

Good job, mate.
By the way, what OP misses most importantly is that Bitcoin is not the final product, if there is a community support and we all agree that we are under a threat, we can always change the code and make a fork. Also, OP has to keep in mind that as times goes, everything evolves and things change. Is there a quantum computer a threat to Bitcoin? As quantum computer improves, so does the code, so we will move on a quantum resistant algorithm. Will there be something much better than quantum computers? We will have another algorithm that will be resistant to that thing that will be better than quantum computer. Things evolve, always!

[aioc]

Will this chip be able to break the cryptography behind BTC addresses so quickly that it will make the entire BTC network insecure?

I read that news but it has no impact whatsoever on the price of Bitcoin based on this article

Google's groundbreaking quantum chip, has reached only 105 qubits with improved error rates. Cracking SHA-256, another type of encryption used by Bitcoin, would require an even more powerful computer with millions of physical qubits.

Read more on U.Today https://u.today/googles-new-quantum-chip-wont-kill-bitcoin-expert-says

So Bitcoin is still safe for now but we don't know in the forseeable future, The developers are getting motivated to crack the Bitcoin; they need extensive testing, which will take a lot of time and doesn't guarantee results

[LoyceV]

having solved in less than five minutes a computational problem that would take the fastest computer available right now more than 10 septillion years

This was in our national news too last week. For some reason they always try to impress with very large numbers, but not a single word about the nature of the calculation. What math problem could they possibly have that takes so much computing power? I tried to find it, but all I'm able to find is that "it takes a really long time". What's the point?

Every few months a "concern" about quantum computing for Bitcoin is posted. Panic sells! I'd say there are much bigger problems on the planet when encryption can be broken, but for some reason Bitcoin is what gets people's attention.

I think Quantum Computing is overhyped nonsense just as Artificial Intelligence is.

People earn a shitload of money from overhyped nonsense

[fikrett]

Will this chip be able to break the cryptography behind BTC addresses so quickly that it will make the entire BTC network insecure?

I read that news but it has no impact whatsoever on the price of Bitcoin based on this article

Google's groundbreaking quantum chip, has reached only 105 qubits with improved error rates. Cracking SHA-256, another type of encryption used by Bitcoin, would require an even more powerful computer with millions of physical qubits.

Read more on U.Today https://u.today/googles-new-quantum-chip-wont-kill-bitcoin-expert-says

So Bitcoin is still safe for now but we don't know in the forseeable future, The developers are getting motivated to crack the Bitcoin; they need extensive testing, which will take a lot of time and doesn't guarantee results

Before these quantums will become a commodity like the internet and cheap enough to use them on such a scale - BTC will be quantum resistant, in my opinion.
So there is nothing to worry about in the perspective. And such news wouldn't hurt BTC at all, or only for a very short term in the minds of some people.