Bitcoin Q-Day on the Horizon? New IBM Quantum Chip Expected to Hit Another Milestone

IBM has introduced the Nighthawk and Loon quantum processors, marking crucial progress toward achieving verified quantum advantage by 2026 and fault tolerance by 2029. The Nighthawk processor features 120 qubits and 218 couplers, enabling it to support circuits that can perform up to 5,000 two-qubit gates. Although IBM's advancements bring quantum computing closer to practicality, cracking Bitcoin’s elliptic curve cryptography would still require a fault-tolerant quantum computer with approximately 2,000 logical qubits. The company is also expanding its Qiskit software to match hardware developments, improving accuracy and efficiency for quantum computations. Additionally, IBM announced significant advancements in the experimental Quantum Loon processor, achieving a tenfold improvement in error-decoding performance, an important milestone towards fault-tolerant quantum systems. IBM's ongoing investment in quantum computing aims to accelerate the development of scalable quantum technologies, positioning it as a leader in the field.

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