PANews reported on May 27 that according to Decrypt, Google quantum researcher Craig Gidney published a paper stating that the quantum resources required to crack 2048-bit RSA encryption (similar to the principle of Bitcoin wallet encryption) are 20 times less than the 2019 forecast. New research shows that a quantum computer with less than one million noisy qubits can complete the cracking within a week, while it was previously estimated that 20 million would be needed. This breakthrough is due to algorithm optimization and improvement of error correction technology. The most advanced IBM Condor quantum computer currently has only 1,121 qubits and poses no real threat, but IBM plans to launch a 100,000 qubit model in 2033, and Quantinuum aims to achieve full fault tolerance in 2029.

The cryptocurrency field has already started working on quantum-resistant solutions, with Solana developing a quantum vault and Vitalik proposing a fork to deal with the threat. It is worth noting that the quantum research organization Project 11 has set up a $85,000 prize for the team that can use a quantum computer to crack the simplified version of Bitcoin encryption (25-bit key) to assess the urgency of the threat. The post-quantum encryption standards released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology last year recommend that vulnerable systems be phased out after 2030, and Google's research suggests that this timetable may need to be brought forward.