Oxford scholar says quantum memory could decide whether Bitcoin is broken or displaced

Oxford quantum computing lecturer Stefano Gogioso said progress on quantum memory devices could become a defining milestone for the sector and shape Bitcoin’s long-term fate. In his view, the same class of hardware may determine whether Bitcoin is eventually broken by quantum computers or overtaken by new forms such as quantum money. Gogioso said a viable quantum memory device would need to keep quantum states stable for months, remain portable, and support capacity on the scale of billions of independent states. Current laboratory systems, he said, can preserve quantum states only for seconds. He argued that a fault-tolerant quantum computer must maintain quantum states over long periods, which effectively makes it a quantum memory device in practice. He added that if such hardware is achieved, it could be used both to attack Bitcoin signatures and to support applications such as quantum money. According to his remarks, attacking Bitcoin signatures would require about 500,000 physical qubits. The comments were cited by BeInCrypto and summarized by Techub.