IonQ has published a study detailing a fault-tolerant quantum computing architecture capable of breaking 256-bit elliptic curve cryptography, such as that securing Bitcoin, in 25.7 days. Their optimized "Walking Cat" architecture utilizes qLDPC codes and 19,397 physical qubits to achieve this, highlighting the future vulnerability of current cryptographic standards and urging migration to post-quantum alternatives.

IonQ estimates a 20,000-qubit fault-tolerant quantum computer could solve Bitcoin’s secp256k1 elliptic-curve problem in about 26 days.

IonQ and Congruity360 have entered an $8.18 million agreement to implement a quantum-safe network, integrating post-quantum cryptography and hardware-based quantum key…