Mr. Olivier Roussy Newton reports

BTQ TECHNOLOGIES PUBLISHES "KARDASHEV SCALE QUANTUM COMPUTING FOR BITCOIN MINING"

BTQ Technologies Corp. has published a landmark research paper establishing the first end-to-end physical cost estimate for using quantum computers to mine bitcoin.

Highlights:

• New research shows the real near-term bitcoin quantum risk lies in signatures, not mining, reinforcing BTQ's focus on Bitcoin Quantum, QCIM and quantum-native consensus.
• BTQ published "Kardashev Scale Quantum Computing for Bitcoin Mining," a new arXiv paper by Pierre-Luc Dallaire-Demers, showing that while Grover's algorithm offers a theoretical shortcut, quantum bitcoin mining is physically and economically impractical once real-world hardware, error correction and energy costs are included.
• The paper finds that even in a highly favourable scenario, competitive quantum mining would require roughly 10 to the power of eight physical qubits and 10 to the power of four megawatts of power, while at bitcoin's January, 2025, mainnet difficulty the requirements rise to about 10 to the power of 23 qubits and 10 to the power of 25 watts, approaching the energy output of a star.
• The findings reinforce that the real near-term quantum threat to bitcoin is not mining, but signature vulnerability, supporting BTQ's work on Bitcoin Quantum, its quantum-safe bitcoin architecture designed around postquantum cryptography and more resilient transaction design.
• The research also strengthens BTQ's long-term case for quantum proof of work (QPoW), its quantum-native, classically verifiable consensus model, by showing that trying to accelerate legacy bitcoin mining with quantum hardware is a dead end, while consensus designed specifically for quantum systems may offer a more credible and energy-efficient path forward.

The paper, titled "Kardashev Scale Quantum Computing for Bitcoin Mining," by Mr. Dallaire-Demers, is now available on arXiv and represents one of the most rigorous analyses to date of the real-world economics of quantum bitcoin mining.

Public discussion around quantum threats to bitcoin often conflates two very different issues: attacks on bitcoin's elliptic-curve digital signatures, which are genuine and increasingly urgent, and quantum-accelerated mining using Grover's algorithm, whose practical severity has long been debated in theory but not rigorously costed in physical terms. This paper helps resolve that ambiguity with quantitative clarity.

"This paper does something the industry has needed for years -- it prices the quantum mining question end to end and closes it," said Mr. Dallaire-Demers. "To push mining into non-trivial consensus effects, one must invoke astronomical quantum fleets operating at energy scales that lie far above present-day civilization. The real cryptographic crisis is the signature vulnerability and that clock is already ticking."

Rather than stopping at Grover's theoretical quadratic speed-up, the paper introduces an open-source resource estimator that models the full quantum mining stack, including reversible double-SHA-256 oracles, surface-code magic-state distillation factories, fleet-scale qubit logistics and the timing constraints imposed by Nakamoto consensus.

Key findings

Quantum bitcoin mining remains impractical even in the best-case scenario

Even under the most favourable partial-preimage setting studied, a superconducting surface-code fleet would still require approximately 10 to the power of eight physical qubits and 10 to the power of four megawatts of power -- roughly comparable with the output of a large national electricity grid.

At real bitcoin difficulty, the requirements become astronomical

At bitcoin's January, 2025, mainnet mining difficulty, estimated requirements rise to approximately 10 to the power of 23 physical qubits and 10 to the power of 25 watts of power -- approaching the energy output of a star.

Grover's theoretical advantage collapses in the real world

While Grover's algorithm offers a quadratic search advantage in theory, that benefit breaks down once oracle construction, error correction and fleet overhead are included. In practical terms, quantum mining is not a credible near-term threat to bitcoin's proof-of-work consensus.

The more urgent threat is signature vulnerability

By contrast, quantum attacks on bitcoin's elliptic-curve signatures using Shor's algorithm remain a genuine and much more immediate concern, reinforcing the need for postquantum cryptographic infrastructure.

Why this matters

BTQ believes the distinction clarified by this paper is critical. The more relevant quantum challenge for bitcoin and digital asset infrastructure is not the mining layer but the authentication layer.

That view is consistent with BTQ's broader strategy.

Through Bitcoin Quantum, BTQ has been developing and testing a quantum-safe bitcoin architecture designed to address vulnerabilities at the signature and transaction level. The company previously launched the Bitcoin Quantum test net, a live environment for demonstrating how bitcoin-like systems can migrate toward postquantum cryptographic standards, including NIST-standardized (National Institute of Standards and Technology) ML-DSA signatures and more resilient transaction designs such as BIP 360 (Pay-to-Merkle-Root).

BTQ believes the findings in this paper strengthen the rationale for that work. If Grover-based mining is not a practical quantum path, then the priority shifts more clearly toward securing wallets, signatures and authentication systems before large-scale quantum capability arrives.

At the same time, the paper supports a broader conclusion: If the quantum acceleration of classical mining collapses under real physical cost, the logical long-term alternative is not to force quantum hardware onto legacy proof-of-work systems but to build consensus around computational tasks that quantum systems perform natively and efficiently.

That is the rationale behind BTQ's quantum proof-of-work (QPoW) initiative.

Unlike Grover-based approaches that attempt to speed up classical SHA-256 mining, BTQ's QPoW is designed around quantum-native computational tasks that better match the strengths of quantum hardware from the outset. In BTQ's view, this is an important distinction. The paper shows that using quantum computers to mine classical bitcoin more efficiently is not a practical path. QPoW, by contrast, is based on the idea that quantum systems may still play a meaningful role in consensus when the work itself is designed for quantum hardware rather than retrofitted to classical mining assumptions.

BTQ's previously published materials indicate that, in modelled comparisons, QPoW can be materially more energy efficient than equivalent classical sampling-based methods while remaining classically verifiable. This supports BTQ's broader thesis that the future of digital money may require not only quantum-safe authentication but also new consensus architectures designed specifically for the capabilities of quantum machines.

Performance comparison

Grover-based bitcoin mining:

• Requires approximately 10 to the power of eight qubits and 10 to the power of four megawatts even in a highly favourable scenario;
• Scales to approximately 10 to the power of 23 qubits and 10 to the power of 25 watts at bitcoin's January, 2025, mainnet difficulty;
• Conclusion: theoretically interesting, physically and economically impractical.

BTQ's bitcoin quantum:

• Focused on the real near-term issue: postquantum authentication and signature security;
• Demonstrates how bitcoin-like systems can migrate to quantum-safe cryptography;
• Provides a live test environment for postquantum bitcoin infrastructure.

BTQ's quantum proof of work (QPoW):

• Built as a quantum-native consensus model, not a retrofit of legacy mining;
• Designed around computational tasks better suited to quantum hardware;
• Designed to be classically verifiable;
• In BTQ's published modelled comparison, a quantum sampler consumes approximately 0.25 kilowatt-hour over a 10-minute block interval versus approximately 390 kilowatt-hours per block per miner for a classical equivalent sampling-based set-up, implying an energy advantage of approximately 1,560 times;
• Conclusion: a more credible long-term framework for quantum-era consensus than attempting to accelerate classical bitcoin mining.

"Quantum computing may reshape digital money, but not by making legacy bitcoin mining practical," said Christopher Tam, president and head of innovation at BTQ Technologies. "What matters now is securing authentication and preparing bitcoin-like systems for the postquantum era. Longer term, this research also strengthens the case for quantum-native consensus architectures such as QPoW, where the work is designed for quantum systems from the start rather than forced onto a classical framework."

Key take-aways:

• Quantum mining is not a near-term issue for bitcoin;
• Signature vulnerability remains the more urgent cryptographic challenge;
• Bitcoin Quantum provides a practical framework for postquantum bitcoin migration;
• QPoW strengthens BTQ's long-term position around more energy-efficient, quantum-native consensus systems.

The paper, "Kardashev Scale Quantum Computing for Bitcoin Mining," is now available on arXiv.

About BTQ Technologies Corp.

BTQ is a quantum technology company focused on accelerating the transition from classical networks to the quantum Internet. Backed by a broad patent portfolio and deep technical expertise, BTQ is advancing a full-stack, neutral-atom quantum computing platform spanning hardware, middleware and postquantum security solutions for finance, telecommunications, logistics, life sciences and defence.

We seek Safe Harbor.