By Jim Edwards
Publication Date: 2025-11-19 09:29:00
Quantum computers should be powerful enough to crack Bitcoin’s security features—by instantly solving the mining mechanism or guessing wallet passwords by brute force—shortly after 2030, according to the CEO of a company working in partnership with Nvidia on its quantum computing efforts.
Quantum technology is not yet good enough to pose a threat to cryptocurrency, but it is getting there, Théau Peronnin, the CEO of Alice & Bob, told Fortune at Web Summit in Lisbon. (The company’s name is based on a joke about cryptography texts, which often state problems by using two fictional characters, Alice and Bob, who need to communicate with each other in secret.)
A&B—backed by about $150 million in venture capital—is developing a “fault-tolerant quantum computing” system with Nvidia. In classical computing, circuits at their most basic level are simple: their gates are either open or closed, signalling a 1 or a 0. Quantum computing, however, uses a state of quantum physics known as “quantum uncertainty.” At an atomic level, a particle can exist as both matter and energy simultaneously. A computer using quantum principles can thus calculate as if it is representing 1 or 0 at the same time—allowing it to perform multiple tasks at the same time rather than in sequential order, and radically increasing the computer’s processing power.
The problem is that because quantum computers represent data in two different states simultaneously, their calculations…