Crypto researchers cut Bitcoin and Ethereum quantum attack estimate by 50%
Researchers have optimized quantum circuits to reduce the estimated computational requirements for attacking Bitcoin and Ethereum's cryptography by over 50%. The study utilized AI coding agents to improve the efficiency of Shor's algorithm, suggesting that quantum threats to blockchain security may be closer than previously thought.
Why it matters
This research highlights the evolving threat landscape for blockchain security as quantum computing hardware and algorithmic efficiency continue to advance.
A paper shared with CoinDesk by researchers from the Ethereum Foundation, Theta Labs, StarkWare and several other organizations describes a quantum circuit using 1,151 logical qubits, or such a machine’s smallest working units, and about 1.3 million Toffoli gates, a measure of how much work it has to do.
Think of the two numbers as machine size and workload, where fewer qubits means a smaller machine, while fewer gates means less work for that machine to do.
The new circuit scores about 1.5 billion, more than 50% below the roughly 3 billion score reported by Google Quantum AI in March. The paper cautioned that the comparison is not perfectly like-for-like, however, because the designs use different interfaces and accounting rules.
A second version adapted more closely to how Shor's algorithm would actually use the calculation scored about 1.96 billion, still below Google's reported figures.
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