Google CEO Sundar Pichai has unveiled Willow, a new quantum computing chip with “breakthrough” new capabilities. This chip has sparked com

Google Unveils Willow Quantum Chip, Sparks Debate Over Bitcoin Security

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2024-12-12 14:00:11

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has unveiled Willow, a new quantum computing chip with “breakthrough” new capabilities. This chip has sparked community concerns about cracking Bitcoin’s cryptographic algorithms.

Community members have already begun reassuring the space, acknowledging that Bitcoiners predicted this possibility years ago and that a possible security threat is still years away.

This news comes from an announcement by Pichai and an accompanying blog post. Essentially, this new chip, with 105 qubits, cracked a “30-year challenge” in quantum computing.

In a test, Willow performed a computation in five minutes, while the strongest non-quantum supercomputers could not do it in ten septillion years. Could this crack Bitcoin’s security algorithm?

To simplify matters significantly, qubits in a quantum computer have one clear advantage over bits in a normal computer. Instead of calculating solutions one at a time, it can use uncertainty and quantum entanglement to calculate many at once. In other words, Willow, with 105 qubits, could perform every calculation a 105-bit computer could, but simultaneously.