Remember the recent market correction?We analyzed the reasons and forecasts of analysts.So one of the triggers for the crypt collapse was the growing tension around the capabilities of Google's new Willow chip.How does this relate to cryptocurrency?Direct.A modern quantum processor can perform calculations in 5 minutes that would take the most powerful supercomputers 10 septillion years (that's a 1 followed by49 zeros).

This breakthrough raises an important question: Could quantum computing threaten Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? Willow has shown a reduction in errors when qubits are added to the 7x7 array and is capable of performing tasks that classical supercomputers could not accomplish even for the entire existence of the universe. The danger is that all cryptocurrencies are based on elliptic cryptography (ECC), which converts data at the expense of the computational complexity of solving certain onesmathematical problems.

In theory, with the help of quantum computers, it is theoretically possible to use Shor's algorithm to solve these problems much faster.However, to crack ECC you need a quantum computer with at least 1.5 million logical qubits.The Willow chip only has 105 qubits, which is far fromis away from the required amount.It will take decades to create a truly dangerous cryptographic encryption chip.

Although the quantum threat to Bitcoin is far away, the crypto community is already developing protection strategies. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is developing standards to protect digital assets from quantum attacks. Bitcoin developers are exploring the possibility of switching to quantum-resistant algorithms. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also spoke about studying protection against quantum attacks by studying quantum-resistant cryptographic onesAlgorithms.

Some coins, including the 1 million BTC said to belong to Satoshi Nakamoto, are stored in a form that exposes public keys. This earlier version of storage is more vulnerable to quantum attacks. Researchers suggest freezing coins or stopping the use of such transactions altogether.