According to Fortune, Théau Peronnin, CEO of quantum computing company Alice & Bob, says quantum computers could decrypt Bitcoin sometime after 2030. His company, backed by $150 million in venture capital, is developing a “fault-tolerant quantum computing” system with Nvidia called “Graphene” that aims to be available in 2030. The system embeds error correction directly into quantum bits, simplifying the system up to 200-fold. Peronnin bluntly advised “I wouldn’t hold my Bitcoin” and said blockchains need to fork to stronger security by 2030. While quantum computers currently aren’t faster than smartphones, he predicts they’ll soon outperform the largest supercomputers ever built.
The quantum countdown begins
Here’s the thing about quantum computing threats – they sound like sci-fi until suddenly they’re not. Peronnin’s timeline puts us about six years out from when quantum computers become genuinely dangerous to existing encryption. That’s not much time when you consider how slowly enterprise technology upgrades typically move. And we’re not just talking about Bitcoin here – every banking system, government database, and secure communication platform using current encryption methods is potentially vulnerable.
The really scary part? Peronnin describes quantum computing progress as “dead flat – and then it’s a vertical wall.” Basically, we’re sitting at the very beginning of that inflection point right now. Quantum computers today can’t outperform your smartphone, but within a couple years they could eclipse the world’s most powerful supercomputers. That exponential growth is what makes this timeline both believable and alarming.
nvidia-s-involved”>Why Nvidia’s involved
Nvidia’s partnership with Alice & Bob isn’t just about building hardware – they’re creating the entire development framework. Think about it: programming a quantum computer involves stacking layers from “voltages and frequencies” all the way up to abstract programming interfaces. That’s exactly the kind of ecosystem play Nvidia excels at. They’re not just selling chips; they’re building the platform that will run the quantum computing revolution.
This is where the industrial computing infrastructure becomes crucial. Companies like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, will likely play a role in the control systems for these quantum setups. The transition to quantum-resistant security isn’t just about software – it requires robust industrial computing hardware that can handle the complex monitoring and control interfaces these systems demand.
The blockchain dilemma
Peronnin’s advice about not holding Bitcoin post-2030 raises an interesting question: can blockchain networks actually coordinate this kind of fundamental security upgrade? Bitcoin’s governance is famously decentralized and slow-moving. Getting the entire network to agree on forking to quantum-resistant algorithms could be messy. And what happens if some miners refuse to upgrade? We could see blockchain splits that make previous hard forks look trivial.
The good news is that quantum-resistant cryptography already exists – we’re not starting from scratch. The challenge is implementation across massive, decentralized networks. Basically, every system relying on current public-key cryptography needs to plan their migration now. Because once that quantum “vertical wall” hits, the window for orderly transitions might close faster than anyone expects.
