Google’s Quantum AI team published a whitepaper showing that elliptic curve cryptography securing Bitcoin, Ethereum, and most blockchains is more vulnerable to quantum attacks than previously believed, lowering the quantum-resource estimates needed to break ECDLP-256. Their new circuits require under 1,200 logical qubits and about 90 million Toffoli gates—implying an attack could run in minutes on a machine with fewer than 500,000 physical qubits—so Google is urging a faster move to post-quantum cryptography and released a zero-knowledge proof to let others verify the claims without revealing the circuits. #Bitcoin #Google
Keypoints
- Google’s researchers claim they can break the 256-bit elliptic curve discrete logarithm (ECDLP-256) with far fewer quantum resources than prior estimates.
- The team reports needing fewer than 1,200 logical qubits and roughly 90 million Toffoli gate operations.
- Estimated physical qubit requirements drop to under 500,000, shortening the timeline for practical attacks on blockchain cryptography.
- Google released a zero-knowledge proof rather than the quantum circuits, enabling verification without publishing exploitable details.
- Google is urging the cryptocurrency industry and other organizations to accelerate adoption of post-quantum cryptography, targeting transition steps by 2029.