Bitcoin Faces Quantum Threat? Google Unveils Willow Chip Breakthrough

• Google’s latest technological breakthrough, dubbed Willow, could solve a computational program in less than five minutes, triggering concerns among crypto enthusiasts.
• However, an expert has explained that the level of this breakthrough is not close to “cracking cryptos”.

Google has disclosed in the latest announcement that its quantum computing chip called Willow could solve computational problems in less than five minutes. Fascinatingly, supercomputers could take 10 septillion years to solve the same problem. This has raised concerns among Bitcoin users who believe that Google has found a “crack code” for the asset.

Introducing Willow, our new state-of-the-art quantum computing chip with a breakthrough that can reduce errors exponentially as we scale up using more qubits, cracking a 30-year challenge in the field. In benchmark tests, Willow solved a standard computation in <5 mins that would…— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) December 9, 2024

What We Know About Google’s Breakthrough

According to the details captured in a blog post, Google’s latest innovation corrects errors at an exponential rate while processing certain computations at a groundbreaking speed. Google’s Quantum AI lead Hartmut Neven believes that these numbers exceed time scales in physics as well as the age of the universe.

Throwing more light on this, Neven highlighted that Willow scaled up using more Qubits to crack a crucial challenge in quantum error correction. Meanwhile, this had been pursued for 30 years.

We tested ever-larger arrays of physical qubits, scaling up from a grid of 3×3 encoded qubits to a grid of 5×5 to a grid of 7×7 — and each time, using our latest advances in quantum error correction, we were able to cut the error rate in half. In other words, we achieved an exponential reduction in the error rate. This historic accomplishment is known in the field as “below threshold” — being able to drive errors down while scaling up the number of qubits.

It is important to note that the quantum bit is a basic unit of information and an important aspect of quantum computing. The more this is accumulated, the higher power is achieved. However, adding more qubits increases the risk of errors. In situations where the errors become too high, computations become unreliable and produce inaccurate results.

According to the roadmap, Google has only reached the second milestone out of a possible six, which could be reached by 2030. Google also disclosed that Willow has the best-in-class performance across other systems.

We’re focusing on quality, not just quantity — because just producing larger numbers of qubits doesn’t help if they’re not high enough quality. With 105 qubits, Willow now has best-in-class performance across the two system benchmarks discussed above quantum error correction and random circuit sampling. Such algorithmic benchmarks are the best way to measure overall chip performance.

Willow, a Threat to Crypto?

Addressing the rising concerns within the crypto ecosystem, tech entrepreneur and former senior product manager for Google, Kevin Rose clarified that the technological breakthrough is still far from “cracking” cryptos.

According to Rose, Bitcoin cannot be easily compromised as it would require a quantum computer with 13 million qubits to decrypt the technology within 24 hours. This aligns with a CNF report in December 2023 that highlighted that such breakthroughs cannot put the entire Industry in danger.

Similarly, the CEO of payment platform Lightspark, David Marcus, believes that people do not fully understand the significance of Google’s Willow. Explaining this, Markus highlighted that Google’s breakthrough implies that “post-quantum cryptography and encryption should get moving.”

Meanwhile, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin believes that crypto users would simply have to download a new software wallet after the blockchain is subjected to a hard fork to mitigate the impact of a “Quantum Computers emergency.”