ChainCatcher news, according to Fortune, a study from the University of Kent's School of Computing indicates that if Bitcoin wants to effectively guard against the threats posed by quantum computing, it will need a protocol update, which would result in the cryptocurrency being offline for 76 days. The study also more practically points out that Bitcoin could allocate 25% of its servers for the protocol update while allowing users to continue mining and trading at a slower pace. However, in that scenario, the downtime would extend to 305 days, or 10 months.Carlos Perez-Delgado, a lecturer at the University of Kent, stated that he could not provide an exact figure for the downtime costs, but it could be staggering. According to data from the Ponemon Institute, the cost of downtime for businesses can reach up to $500,000 per hour. If Bitcoin were to be offline for 76 days (which the study considers the best-case scenario), the update costs could reach $912 million.In an interview, Perez-Delgado said, "Even if your technology is down for just a few minutes or a few hours, it can be very, very expensive. What we show in the paper is that for Bitcoin or any Bitcoin-like system, updates can take days, weeks, or even months." However, Perez-Delgado believes that given the emerging and "forthcoming" quantum technologies that could easily break the encryption codes protecting vast amounts of online data, such slow and costly actions are necessary.Perez-Delgado is not trying to be alarmist. IBM predicts that within this decade, we are unlikely to have sufficiently large quantum computers to threaten current forms of encryption, so until then, the threat to cryptography remains hypothetical. But Perez-Delgado warns that if quantum computers do pose a threat, all tech companies must take proactive measures.

ChainCatcher message, regarding the recent market attention on the quantum computer chip Willow and the freezing of Satoshi Nakamoto's private key, Slow Mist founder Yu Xian quoted crypto researcher Jeffrey Scholz's tweet: "The current dozens of quantum gates are still millions of gates away from being able to crack Bitcoin private keys. Increasing this number of quantum gates is not easy, and the noise and error rates will also increase, ultimately resulting in a quickly produced waste in the real world... Let's worry about Satoshi's private key in a few decades."

ChainCatcher message, regarding Google CEO Sundar Pichai's announcement of the new generation quantum computing chip Willow, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik commented and asked, "What is the largest semiprime you can factor?"Additionally, in response to a question from a user in the comments section about "how to formulate a plan to lead in quantum-resistant cryptography and integrate it with current blockchains (like Ethereum)?", Vitalik replied, "This question has been widely discussed in a recent blog post."

ChainCatcher news, Google (GOOG.O) CEO Sundar Pichai stated that its newly released quantum computing chip Willow is an important step in building useful quantum computers, with practical applications in drug discovery, fusion energy, battery design, and more. Its breakthrough can exponentially reduce errors as we use more qubits, solving a challenge that has persisted in the field for 30 years.In benchmark tests, Willow completed a "standard benchmark computation" in less than five minutes, while even the fastest supercomputers today would take "10 to the power of 25" years to complete this computation ------ a number far exceeding the age of the universe.

ChainCatcher news, Ava Labs founder Emin Gün Sirer stated, "While the latest developments in quantum computing are astonishing, they do not pose a threat to the security of cryptocurrencies, at least not at this moment! As for the question of whether Satoshi's 1 million bitcoins might be at risk from quantum threats, it uses a very old payment public key (P2PK) format, which exposes the public key and gives attackers time. As QC becomes a threat, the Bitcoin community may want to consider freezing Satoshi's tokens, or more generally, providing a shutdown date and freezing all tokens on P2PK utxos."

ChainCatcher message, Ethereum founder Vitalik posted on X: "Quantum computing is the biggest driving force. Whether we like it or not, externally owned accounts (EOA) will eventually disappear in the future, as quantum computing will ultimately break ECDSA."

ChainCatcher news, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has committed to invest SGD 100 million (USD 74.36 million) to enhance its financial sector's quantum computing and artificial intelligence capabilities, aiming to help local financial institutions build quantum computing infrastructure and accelerate the development and adoption of artificial intelligence.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, Professor Massimiliano Sala from the University of Trento in Italy recently discussed the future of blockchain with the Ripple team, particularly the potential threat of quantum computing to cryptographic technologies. Professor Sala emphasized that the maturity of quantum computing technology could pose a serious threat to existing cryptographic methods, thereby bringing risks to the entire blockchain technology system. He pointed out that quantum computers will be able to easily solve the fundamental problems of digital signatures, undermining the security mechanisms that protect user assets on blockchain platforms. He proposed the concept of "Q Day," which refers to the moment when quantum computers become powerful enough and accessible enough for malicious actors to break traditional cryptographic methods.While this will have far-reaching implications for any field where data security is critical—including emergency services, infrastructure, banking, and defense—it could theoretically destroy the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Sala suggested that to address this potential risk, all traditional public key cryptosystems should be replaced with corresponding systems that can withstand quantum attacks. Although practical quantum computers capable of performing such operations have not yet emerged, governments and research institutions around the world are already preparing for the arrival of Q Day. Professor Sala expressed satisfaction with the progress in the field of quantum computing and recommended that blockchain developers maintain close collaboration with cryptographic experts who understand modern systems' quantum protection standards and innovations to face this challenge together.