BTQ Quantifies 10^23 Qubits and 10^25W for Quantum Bitcoin Mining
BTQ’s new paper shows competitive quantum Bitcoin mining requires roughly 10^8 physical qubits and 10^4 MW of power in best-case scenarios, rising to 10^23 qubits and 10^25 watts at January 2025 difficulty, making it impractical. The study highlights signature vulnerability as the real near-term risk, bolstering BTQ’s quantum-safe architecture and QPoW consensus model.
1. Publication of Quantitative Quantum Mining Analysis
BTQ released a comprehensive research paper detailing physical cost estimates for quantum-accelerated Bitcoin mining, concluding that even under optimistic conditions quantum mining remains unviable due to massive hardware and energy demands.
2. Key Findings on Qubit and Power Requirements
The study finds a superconducting surface-code fleet would need about 10^8 physical qubits and 10^4 MW in ideal cases, escalating to 10^23 qubits and 10^25 watts at January 2025 mainnet difficulty, energy demands on par with a star’s output.
3. Emphasis on Signature Vulnerability Risk
Researchers assert that quantum threats to Bitcoin’s elliptic-curve digital signatures via Shor’s algorithm present a far more immediate crisis, underscoring BTQ’s focus on post-quantum cryptography and resilient transaction designs.
4. Strategic Case for Quantum Proof of Work
By demonstrating the impracticality of retrofitting quantum hardware to classical mining, the paper reinforces BTQ’s advocacy for QPoW, a consensus mechanism tailored to quantum-native computational tasks for energy-efficient, classically verifiable networks.