To Mine Bitcoin With Quantum: Just Attach a Small Star to Your Rig, Study Finds

Two fresh papers have delivered what the crypto world needed most: a generous splash of cold water to the face regarding quantum computing threats. And the numbers involved are, for lack of a better word, quite literally stellar.

The first study, cooked up by Pierre-Luc Dallaire-Demers and the crew at BTQ Technologies, dropped in March 2026 and takes a hard look at whether a quantum computer could actually out-mine bitcoin using Grover's algorithm. Spoiler alert: the answer requires a power source roughly the size of a small star — so not exactly what you'd call plug-and-play.

According to the researchers, mounting a quantum mining assault on bitcoin at January 2025 difficulty would demand approximately 10²³ qubits slurping down about 10²⁵ watts. For those keeping score at home, that's roughly 3% of the Sun's entire energy output. Meanwhile, the current Bitcoin network collectively draws about 15 gigawatts to keep the lights on. So while quantum miners dream big, they definitely can't dream of plugging into a standard wall socket anytime soon.

Now, the second paper takes a swing at those shiny "quantum factoring breakthroughs" that reliably pop up in headlines every few months. Authors Peter Gutmann from the University of Auckland and Stephan Neuhaus at Zürcher Hochschule in Switzerland decided to fact-check every major quantum factoring claim from the past two decades. Their methodology? They pulled it off using a 1981 VIC-20 home computer, an abacus, and a Golden Retriever named Scribble who was trained to bark exactly three times whenever a solution was found.

Here's the kicker: the supposed quantum breakthroughs apparently involve some creative number selection, where hidden prime factors conveniently sit nice and close together. Or they cleverly offload the genuinely difficult calculations onto classical computers before handing the quantum machine a