Google Quantum Researcher Slams Bitcoin Q-Day Prize as Misleading Benchmark
A Google quantum researcher has criticized Project Eleven's Q-Day Prize, which awarded Giancarlo Lelli one Bitcoin for demonstrating a 15-bit elliptic curve private key on cloud-accessible hardware.
Craig Gidney, a research scientist on Google's quantum team, argued in an April 25 blog post that the contest was structured around a benchmark current quantum computers cannot meaningfully measure.
Gidney noted that Shor's algorithm requires quantum error correction for cryptographically meaningful instances, and current machines hit roughly one error per thousand gates against billions required.
He also pointed to work by GitHub user Yuval Adam, who reportedly swapped the quantum calls with random calls and got results indistinguishable from the original.