Bitcoin vs. Quantum Computers: Why 1.9 Billion Qubits Stands Between Now and Crypto's Biggest Fear
Bitcoin vs. Quantum Computers: Why 1.9 Billion Qubits Stands Between Now and Crypto’s Biggest Fear TL;DR A viral Reddit discussion in r/CryptoCurrency is making the rounds, and the headline number is striking: breaking Bitcoin’s cryptographic security would require approximately 1.9 billion qubits. The best quantum computers publicly available today — including IBM Quantum’s cutting-edge processors — operate at only a few thousand qubits. That’s a gap of roughly six orders of magnitude. So while the quantum threat to Bitcoin is real in theory, the timeline for it becoming a practical danger is far longer than most headlines suggest. The community is divided, though, on whether “far away” means “not worth worrying about.” ...