Odaily Planet Daily reports that research by quantum computing company Alice & Bob estimates that a fault-tolerant quantum computer with approximately 29,588 physical qubits could solve the 256-bit elliptic curve cryptography problem used by Bitcoin in about 61.8 minutes. This problem underpins the digital signatures used to authorize Bitcoin transactions; the findings represent theoretical resource estimates and do not indicate that current quantum computers possess the capability to break it.
The study also estimates that 22,593 physical qubits could break RSA-2048 encryption in approximately 3.14 days. The calculations employ cat qubit technology designed to reduce quantum errors, combined with more efficient error-correcting codes and improvements to Shor's algorithm.
If a sufficiently powerful quantum computer were able to derive private keys from publicly exposed public keys, the associated bitcoins could be at risk of unauthorized signatures and asset theft. Research estimates that the time required to break these keys still exceeds Bitcoin’s average block interval of approximately 10 minutes; around 6.9 million bitcoins may be at risk due to their corresponding public keys being publicly exposed. (Bitcoin.com News)