Google Willow shows potential but question remains whether it can destabilize Bitcoin’s encryption network.
Top technology firm Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL), through its subsidiary Google, has introduced Willow, its latest quantum chip. Many believe Willow might be the end of Bitcoin BTC $67 975 24h volatility: 0.6% Market cap: $1.36 T Vol. 24h: $36.19 B , considering its potential.
Willow Comes with a New Speed Standard
Google‘s Willow is a very powerful quantum supercomputer capable of performing certain computational tasks that will ordinarily take classical supercomputers 10 septillion years, just five minutes. Compared to the entire existence of the world, which is (13.8 billion years), the 10 septillion years is even bigger.
The American-based multinational corporation described the latest addition as a “state-of-the-art” chip that demonstrates error correction and performance while paving the way to a useful, large-scale quantum computer. With how great this computer is designed to be, passwords might no longer be safe.
Encrypted messages can easily get intercepted, so can nuclear weapon codes be discovered. Ultimately, anything with a secret key can easily be unlocked through brute-forcing combinations of numbers and letters.
Many X users see the potential of Willow to easily crack Bitcoin’s complex math algorithm SHA-256, thereby compromising the network.
These concerns stem from Willow’s powerful qubits of up to 105, equivalent to improved error rates. To put this in perspective, quantum computing utilizes quantum bits or qubits instead of traditional bits representing either a 0 or 1. Qubits is capable of representing both 0 and 1 simultaneously. This is because of quantum phenomena like superposition and entanglement.
Overall, the presence of qubits allows quantum computers to run at a very high speed, performing multiple calculations at once. In the long run, they can solve problems currently intractable for classical computers.
On the other hand, Bitcoin’s SHA-256 for mining and ECDSA for signatures are believed to be highly vulnerable to quantum decryption.
Not Powerful Enough to Challenge Bitcoin
Despite these concerns, some experts think that netizens’ concerns about Willow’s challenge to Bitcoin are unfounded. Based on their analysis, the latest Google quantum computing chip must be more powerful to pose a risk, at least not yet. Therefore, there might be no looming risks to Bitcoin in the short term.
“Experts estimate you’d need about 1 million high-quality qubits to make a dent in Bitcoin’s security,” pseudonymous analyst and tech expert Cinemad Producer explained on X.
Hence, even as advanced as Google’s Willow, quantum computers are not equipped with enough scale or error correction capabilities to decrypt widely used encryption methods immediately. They hardly stand a chance against RSA, ECC used in Bitcoin transactions, or even AES in securing data.
Should quantum computers reach a scale that can factor in large numbers, they could break these encryption schemes. This would end up compromising wallet security and transaction integrity. Until then, Bitcoin faces no immediate challenge.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s price briefly saw a price dip that saw the coin lose some of its gains in heavy crypto liquidations. From trading at over $97,000 during the early hours of Monday, the firstborn crypto asset plunged to $94,000. Since then, BTC price has recovered slightly and is currently trading at $97,304.83.
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