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Blockchain Developers Are Racing to Protect Against the Quantum Threat. Here's What It Means for Bitcoin and Ethereum Investors. - finance.yahoo.comquantum-computing

Blockchain Developers Are Racing to Protect Against the Quantum Threat. Here's What It Means for Bitcoin and Ethereum Investors. - finance.yahoo.com

Blockchain Developers Are Racing to Protect Against the Quantum Threat. Here's What It Means for Bitcoin and Ethereum Investors. Anders Bylund, The Motley Fool Fri, September 18, 2026 at 2:41 PM EDT 6 min read BTC-USD +5.93% ETH-USD +7.45% NVDA +0.14% Think about the lock on your front door. Now imagine a locksmith who can glance at the outside of that lock and work out the exact shape of your key. There's no picking, forcing, or breaking anything. The locksmith just looks at the security tool you show to the whole world every day, then walks right in. That is roughly what a big enough quantum computer would do to Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH). Every time you spend from a crypto address, you publish a public key. Today, using that public key to derive the matching private key would take a normal computer longer than the universe has been around. Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue » A powerful quantum machine running Shor's algorithm turns that into an afternoon. Google Quantum AI, a division of Alphabet, put numbers on it in March: about 1,200 to 1,450 logical qubits, meaning the reliable kind you get by welding hundreds of today's error-prone physical qubits into one. With superconducting hardware, that works out to fewer than 500,000 physical qubits and a runtime of 18 to 23 minutes. Researchers from the Ethereum Foundation and Stanford co-signed the paper. Nobody knows when the afternoon arrives. Google's Willow chip carries 105 qubits, and the biggest machines anyone has today run roughly 2,000 to 2,500. A companion paper from Oratomic, co-authored by Caltech's John Preskill, argues that neutral-atom hardware could do the same job with about 26,000 qubits. Some people say the tipping point will come before 2030.

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Blockchain Developers Are Racing to Protect Against the Quantum Threat. Here's What It Means for Bitcoin and Ethereum Investors.quantum-computing

Blockchain Developers Are Racing to Protect Against the Quantum Threat. Here's What It Means for Bitcoin and Ethereum Investors.

Think about the lock on your front door. Now imagine a locksmith who can glance at the outside of that lock and work out the exact shape of your key. There's no picking, forcing, or breaking anything. The locksmith just looks at the security tool you show to the whole world every day, then walks right in. That is roughly what a big enough quantum computer would do to Bitcoin (BTC +5.87%) and Ethereum (ETH +6.38%). Every time you spend from a crypto address, you publish a public key. Today, using that public key to derive the matching private key would take a normal computer longer than the universe has been around. A powerful quantum machine running Shor's algorithm turns that into an afternoon. Google Quantum AI, a division of Alphabet, put numbers on it in March: about 1,200 to 1,450 logical qubits, meaning the reliable kind you get by welding hundreds of today's error-prone physical qubits into one. With superconducting hardware, that works out to fewer than 500,000 physical qubits and a runtime of 18 to 23 minutes. Researchers from the Ethereum Foundation and Stanford co-signed the paper. Nobody knows when the afternoon arrives. Google's Willow chip carries 105 qubits, and the biggest machines anyone has today run roughly 2,000 to 2,500. A companion paper from Oratomic, co-authored by Caltech's John Preskill, argues that neutral-atom hardware could do the same job with about 26,000 qubits. Some people say the tipping point will come before 2030. Other serious people say 2040. Cryptocurrency developers have to prepare for the early guess, because you cannot patch a decentralized network overnight. ExpandCRYPTO: BTCBitcoinToday's Change(5.87%) $4,489.15Current Price$80,997.00Key Data Points*:nth-last-child(-n+2)]:border-b-0">Market Cap$1.6TMarket cap calculated using publicly traded shares outstanding only. Does not include unlisted, private, or dual-class non-traded shares. Implied market cap may vary.Day's Range$76205.00 - $81213.0052wk Range$57945.16 - $126079.

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Architecture and Capacity Govern Entanglement Speed with Bound of One Halfquantum-computing

Architecture and Capacity Govern Entanglement Speed with Bound of One Half

Entanglement generation speed correlates directly with both an interface’s entangling capability and its surrounding architecture’s ability to replenish resources, previously considered separately. Researchers at Capital Normal University derived a precise limit relating how quickly entanglement develops to the strength of interactions crossing a boundary between quantum systems. The process relies on connections’ ability to create entangled pairs and the network’s design for resource renewal. The team discovered that a fixed connection’s ‘capacity’, its inherent capability to produce entanglement, works alongside an architecture’s capacity to supply fresh resources for continued operation. Understanding these linked elements will enable building more effective quantum communication systems by optimising performance and sustainability. At Capital Normal University, the team identified an interplay where a fixed connection possesses an ‘entangling capacity,’ representing its potential for creating entangled states; this operates with the surrounding design’s capability to supply fresh degrees of freedom, like having multiple lanes on a motorway enabling greater flexibility, for sustained operation. This relationship is key for building more efficient, long-lasting quantum communication systems. Author: Shi-Ju Ran, Capital Normal University. Rooted Network Architecture Predicts Entanglement Speed and Sustained Performance Entanglement measures now demonstrate an improvement in speed. Variational entanglement-enhancing-field optimisation achieved numerically resolved fast-X optimality, representing a level of control unattainable until recently within a two-channel benchmark system. An exact classification based on ‘rooted’ architectures, those where internal connections place vertices close to interfaces, allows prediction of how quickly entanglement can be established and sustained within networks. Interface capacity dictates available entangling flux while architect

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Researchers Define Eleven Personas for Quantum Software Designquantum-computing

Researchers Define Eleven Personas for Quantum Software Design

Understanding stakeholder needs in quantum computing was previously fragmented across institutions and specialist communities. Lukas Schmidbauer from GThe researchersrlands and colleagues have now achieved a consolidated view by identifying eleven distinct personas representing potential users and stakeholders of quantum software. These personas are defined by their use cases, interests, constraints and preferred levels of abstraction; balancing ease of use with detailed hardware exposure is key to effective development. Eleven types of individuals who will utilise or develop quantum software have been mapped, ranging from those needing simple tools to experts requiring detailed hardware access. This moves beyond general design approaches by acknowledging that users possess varying levels of expertise and specific requirements when interacting with this technology. Consequently, developers can build more accessible resources and accelerate progress in applying quantum computing across multiple disciplines. Increasing focus on designing effective quantum software coincides with rapid advances in hardware, but understanding the actual user base has been a challenge due to fragmented knowledge across institutions and specialist groups. Schmidbauer and colleagues addressed this by identifying eleven distinct “personas”, character profiles representing different potential users, a technique similar to market research used for customer needs. These personas vary in their expertise and requirements; some need simple tools while others demand detailed access to underlying hardware, requiring careful balance of abstraction level for optimal usability. The team gathered insights through expert workshops and interviews at conferences, paving the way for more tailored software development. Detailed quantum software user roles facilitate targeted tool development Eleven distinct user ‘personas’ define quantum software development; this represents an improvement over previous met

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Austin Team Cuts Quantum Error Rates by Nineteen Per Centquantum-computing

Austin Team Cuts Quantum Error Rates by Nineteen Per Cent

Optimising Clifford deformation, a technique to reduce errors in quantum systems without extra hardware, has been hampered by intensive computational demands; global searches proved impractical and simpler methods often performed poorly. A new compiler named Chameleon sharply reduces logical error rates with substantially lower computation time, achieving maximum reductions of nineteen per cent relative to existing approaches for surface codes. Won Joon Yun Quantum AI and colleagues have created Chameleon, a system that improves quantum computer reliability without altering their physical components. By optimising information processing using Clifford deformation, Chameleon lowers error rates by up to nineteen per cent for certain code types across different quantum computing architectures. This advancement tackles a key hurdle in building practical and dependable quantum computers by streamlining calibration processes and ensuring more accurate operation. Quantum computations are susceptible to errors; understanding the overall chance of getting an incorrect answer, known as the logical error rate or LER, is vital for building dependable machines. Consider checking for typos after writing a long document: even with careful work, mistakes can creep in and need correction. Chameleon optimises how information is processed via Clifford deformation, adjusting instructions given to qubits to minimise errors caused by inherent imperfections in their behaviour. This optimisation reduces these error rates across various quantum computing hardware types, achieving reductions up to nineteen per cent for surface codes. The following sections detail the technical approach behind Chameleon’s speed and performance gains. Rapid Quantum Error Correction via Accelerated Compilation and Surrogate Scoring Chameleon rapidly decreases classical computation time from 1.2 days to just 3.1 minutes when applied to the BB72 code; previously this speed was unattainable due to intensive simula

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Practical quantum computers are over a decade away, says NEC - cio.comquantum-computing

Practical quantum computers are over a decade away, says NEC - cio.com

A practical, commercial quantum computer is over a decade away, executives at Japanese IT services company NEC are reported as saying. That’s why, according to Japanese news publication The Mainichi, company has pulled the plug on its plans to develop a quantum computer — although it will still continue research into quantum technology. NEC sources told The Mainichi that it would take at least a decade to build a quantum computing that could be put to practical use, and it would be difficult to monetize the technology. This is quite a turnaround for NEC which three years ago was talking about its advances in quantum and its plans to accelerate investment in the technology. The company is certainly bucking the trend as quantum computing is seen as being very much at the cutting edge of research. Pioneers in the field were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics last year, while companies such as Nvidia and IBM are keen to boost their quantum credentials. Despite its early successes in the quantum field, The Mainichi reports that NEC is lagging its Japanese competitors such as Fujitsu and Hitachi when it comes to the latest advances. There is also the level of investment required. According to The Mainichi, Japan is set to commit just 10 trillion yen ($65.3 billion) to quantum computing by 2040, far lower than the sums invested by the US and China. CIO Smart Answers Learn more Explore related questions Why is combining AI and quantum computing considered a winning strategy?Which industries are finding the most value in quantum computing today?Is quantum computing worth the investment for most enterprises today?How can I experiment with quantum computing in my business today?When will practical quantum computing be ready for business use? Ask We’re talking about a long game. Quantum technology has been talked about for some time, but we’re still a long way from seeing the technology in the mainstream.

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Researchers Optimise Quantum Simulations with Engineered Interferencequantum-computing

Researchers Optimise Quantum Simulations with Engineered Interference

Multi-shift quantum imaginary-time evolution (MS-QITE) at South China Normal University offers a key advance in performing computations on quantum computers with reduced resources due to shorter calculations and lessened noise accumulation. The technique utilises a distribution of energy shifts to optimise computation, reshaping sampling distributions within Monte Carlo simulations. Hong-Jian Tang and Dan-Bo Zhang, both, have devised an improved method for simulating complex systems by optimising ‘imaginary-time evolution’, which determines a system’s lowest energy state. This new approach manipulates energies within these simulations to enhance precision and lessen computational demands; it reshapes how data points are selected during calculations. Consequently, this advancement enables more efficient estimations of ground states and thermal states, essential components in advanced modelling across fields like materials science and chemistry. Imaginary-time evolution simulates a system’s behaviour as if time were flowing backwards, allowing researchers to pinpoint its most stable configuration by effectively ‘rolling downhill’ towards minimal energy states. The team’s approach uses carefully chosen variations in energy within these simulations, optimising the process and reducing computational demands, reshaping how data points are selected during calculations to improve accuracy. This promises more efficient estimation of ground and thermal states vital for modelling materials and chemical processes; however, questions remain regarding scalability and performance across diverse quantum hardware platforms. Concentrated sampling via multi-shift quantum imaginary time evolution enhances simulation stability Energy shift manipulation concentrates sampling distributions within a shorter real-time window, an improvement over techniques lacking focused precision. Monte Carlo simulations previously suffered from long computational tails demanding extensive resources; howe

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Researchers Find Faster Spin Information Transfer with Long-Range Linksquantum-computing

Researchers Find Faster Spin Information Transfer with Long-Range Links

A maximum quantum state transfer fidelity of approximately one was achieved across systems containing up to 102 sites when averaging over all possible initial states. E. E. Marshall from the University of York and colleagues found that lowering the power-law exponent governing interactions between spins drives a transformation in information travel through long-range coupled spin networks. Previously limited by slower ballistic transfer or extensive engineering requirements, this mechanism now enables faster and more efficient communication with minimal system adjustments. The team discovered that reducing a parameter defining interaction strength confines information to fewer energy pathways, counterintuitively accelerating transmission across networks containing up to one hundred and two sites. This offers potential for designing more efficient data communication methods in future quantum technologies without requiring complex system construction. E. E. Marshall and colleagues at York uncovered how information travels more efficiently within quantum systems by manipulating connections between particles. They demonstrated that decreasing an interaction parameter accelerates data transmission across networks of up to one hundred and two sites because it confines information transfer into fewer ‘eigenmodes’, concentrating energy via spectral localization. These findings offer potential for improved communication methods without complex system construction but raise questions about applying these principles at even larger scales. Genetic algorithms optimise spin network configurations for rapid quantum data transmission Evolutionary computation, specifically genetic algorithms, systematically explored vast fields of potential spin network configurations. These algorithms began with a population of randomly generated networks, where each ‘individual’ possessed unique connection strengths defining its performance in transferring quantum information.

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$4M NIST grant funds quantum researchers at EPB Quantum Centerquantum-computing

$4M NIST grant funds quantum researchers at EPB Quantum Center

Chattanooga, Tennessee is now home to the first commercial quantum computing and networking hub in the United States, as EPB launched the IonQ Forte Enterprise quantum computer at the EPB Quantum Center. The milestone combines quantum computing power with EPB’s network, allowing companies and researchers to develop and test quantum technologies. “Today’s launch represents another major step in the growth of a quantum ecosystem found only in Chattanooga,” said Vicky Gregg, Chair of the EPB Board of Directors. A $4 million grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will fund research optimizing EPB’s power grid with the help of eight visiting graduate researchers. IonQ Forte System Launches Chattanooga’s Quantum Computing Hub This deployment allows EPB customers, beginning with the EPB Quantum Computing Fellows, to use the system for algorithms they have been developing to further optimize local power grid circuits. This hybrid computing initiative combines the Forte Enterprise system with a classical supercomputer installed onsite, fostering collaboration between EPB, IonQ, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and NVIDIA. Researchers aim to optimize portions of EPB’s automated electric grid, evaluating applications for increasingly complex energy systems and extending beyond theoretical exploration into practical implementation. The collaborative effort underscores a shift toward real-world quantum applications, moving beyond laboratory experimentation to address tangible infrastructure challenges. “There is a real difference between using a quantum computer and operating one in the real world,” stated a representative from EPB. EPB’s investment in quantum infrastructure builds on a history of technological innovation; the company launched the world’s first community-wide gig-speed internet in 2010.

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Chattanooga's new quantum computer is online. EPB says businesses can use it next month - WTVCquantum-computing

Chattanooga's new quantum computer is online. EPB says businesses can use it next month - WTVC

Chattanooga's new quantum computer is online. EPB says businesses can use it next monthby WTVCFri, September 18, 2026 at 12:12 PMImage via EPB.Comment on this story0CommentShare storySharetopics: Quantum computingIonQEPBChattanoogaQuantum CenterElectric gridUTCVanderbiltCHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A new quantum computer is now up and running in Chattanooga, and EPB says businesses will soon be able to pay to use it.EPB announced Friday that it has launched an IonQ Forte Enterprise quantum computer at its Quantum Center.The utility says combining that machine with its existing quantum network makes the Chattanooga facility the first in the country to offer commercial quantum computing and quantum networking in the same place.EPB plans to open the computer to commercial customers in early October, with UTC lined up as its first customer. The utility says it's also working with Vanderbilt University on another project.Before then, researchers working for EPB will get the first crack at it.Eight graduate researchers brought to Chattanooga through a $4 million federal grant are developing quantum algorithms that EPB hopes could help it operate its electric grid more efficiently and reduce costs.That's research, though, not a promise of immediate savings on customers' electric bills.EPB says the researchers will use the new computer to test whether those algorithms can further optimize parts of its automated grid.So what exactly is EPB trying to build?Unlike the computers most of us use every day, quantum computers use principles of quantum physics to tackle certain kinds of calculations in fundamentally different ways.The technology remains an emerging field, and many of its hoped-for commercial applications are still being developed.EPB is betting that giving businesses and researchers access to both quantum computing and networking infrastructure in Chattanooga will help turn some of those ideas into practical uses.That effort is already drawing money and researchers to the c

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