Quantum computers need vastly fewer resources than thought to break vital encryption

Two new research papers reveal that quantum computers require dramatically fewer resources than previously thought to break elliptic-curve cryptography, the security backbone of bitcoin and many digital systems. One study shows neutral atom-based quantum computers could crack 256-bit encryption in 10 days using 100 times less overhead than earlier estimates, needing fewer than 30,000 physical qubits instead of millions. Google researchers demonstrated they could break bitcoin's cryptography in under 10 minutes with just 500,000 physical qubits, but withheld their algorithmic details.