IonQ Puts Quantum Breakthrough on Roadmap: Threats Bitcoin Encryption in 2028

IonQ, an American quantum computing company, has revealed its plans to launch a quantum computer capable of breaking certain types of encryption used by Bitcoin in just under a month. According to IonQ's estimates, a 20,000-qubit quantum computer could solve the elliptic-curve discrete logarithm problem for secp256k1, which is used to generate and verify Bitcoin signatures, in 25.7 days.

This prediction is based on IonQ's own research, which calculates that solving this specific problem would require 19,397 physical qubits. The company plans to reach this milestone with its fully fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2028.

However, it's worth noting that scaling up from the current 256-qubit machine to a 20,000-qubit one could present unforeseen obstacles. Additionally, the attack described would not affect symmetric encryption such as AES-256, which is used in many other applications.

IonQ CEO Niccolo de Masi emphasized the significance of this development, stating that 'the Q-Day time horizon was shifting materially earlier, from the 2030s to the 2020s. Major enterprises and the US government now concur.'