TechFlow News, March 31: Google’s Quantum AI team released a white paper stating that the number of qubits and quantum gate operations required for future cryptographically relevant quantum computers (CRQCs) to break elliptic curve cryptography (ECC)—widely used in cryptocurrencies—is lower than previously estimated.
The white paper shows that the research team compiled two quantum circuits targeting the 256-bit elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem (ECDLP-256): one uses fewer than 1,200 logical qubits and 90 million Toffoli gates; the other uses fewer than 1,450 logical qubits and 70 million Toffoli gates. Estimates indicate these circuits could complete computation within minutes on a superconducting quantum computer with fewer than 500,000 physical qubits—reducing the required number of physical qubits by roughly a factor of 20 compared to prior estimates. Google has previously published a migration timeline targeting 2029, advising the cryptocurrency community to transition blockchains to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) before this deadline and urging users to avoid exposing or reusing vulnerable wallet addresses.
In response, Elon Musk shared on X a discussion about Google’s post-quantum security white paper and quipped: “On the bright side, if you forget your wallet password, you might be able to recover it in the future.”
