Quantum miners would yield ‘massive’ energy savings for blockchain: Study

A brace of scientists from the University of Kent’s School of Computing successful the United Kingdom precocious conducted a survey comparing vigor depletion rates for existent ASIC-based miners to projected quantum-based solutions.

According to the team’s preprint probe paper, the systems utilizing quantum computing demonstrably outperformed modular mining rigs successful vigor efficiency:

“We amusement that the modulation to quantum-based mining could incur an vigor redeeming — by comparatively blimpish estimates — of astir about 126.7 TWH, oregon enactment otherwise the full vigor depletion of Sweden successful 2020.”

Bitcoin mining operations unsocial consumed much than 150 terawatt hours annually (as of May 2022), per the paper, putting into position the imaginable interaction the projected quantum-based systems could have.

The pair’s conclusions were based connected experiments comparing 3 antithetic quantum mining systems to an Antminer S19 XP ASIC miner.

The quantum mining devices were divided betwixt a strategy featuring a azygous furniture of responsibility tolerance, different 1 with 2 layers of responsibility tolerance and 1 without immoderate dedicated error-correction features.

As the researchers constituent out, blockchain mining is 1 of the fewer areas of quantum computing wherever mistake correction isn’t specified a large deal. In astir quantum functions, errors make sound that functionally bounds a computing system’s quality to nutrient close computations.

In blockchain mining, however, occurrence rates with state-of-the-art classical systems are inactive comparatively low. Per the probe paper, “A classical Bitcoin miner is profitable with lone a success-rate of astir 0.000070%.”

The researchers besides enactment that, dissimilar classical systems, quantum-based systems tin really beryllium fine-tuned implicit clip for accrued accuracy and efficiency.

Related: How does quantum computing interaction the concern industry?

While quantum computing exertion is inactive considered to beryllium successful its infancy, the precise circumstantial occupation of blockchain mining doesn’t necessitate a full-service quantum computing solution. As the researchers enactment it, “a quantum miner is not, and request not be, a scalable, cosmopolitan quantum computer. A quantum miner request lone execute a azygous task.”

Ultimately, the researchers reason that it should beryllium imaginable to physique miners utilizing existing quantum technologies that show quantum vantage implicit classical computers.

Despite the imaginable vigor savings, it bears notation that the researchers focused connected a benignant of quantum computing strategy called a “noisy intermediate-scale quantum” (NISQ) system.

According to the preprint paper, quantum miners should show “massive” vigor savings astatine a size of astir 512 quantum bits, oregon “qubits” — a word somewhat analogous to classical computing bits.

Typically, however, NISQ systems lone operate with astir 50-100 qubits, though determination doesn’t look to beryllium an manufacture standard.

While the vigor savings mightiness beryllium feasible, the costs of gathering and maintaining a quantum computing strategy successful the 512 qubit scope have, traditionally, been prohibitive for astir organizations.

Only D-Wave and IBM connection client-facing systems successful the aforesaid scope (D-Wave’s D2 is simply a 512-qubit processor, and IBM’s Osprey weighs successful astatine 433), but their architectures disagree truthful greatly that comparisons betwixt their qubit counts are ostensibly meaningless.