A pair of scientists from the College of Kent’s College of Computing in the UK not too long ago carried out a examine evaluating vitality consumption charges for present ASIC-based miners to proposed quantum-based options.
Based on the crew’s preprint analysis paper, the programs using quantum computing demonstrably outperformed normal mining rigs in vitality effectivity:
“We present that the transition to quantum-based mining might incur an vitality saving — by comparatively conservative estimates — of about roughly 126.7 TWH, or put in a different way the entire vitality consumption of Sweden in 2020.”
Bitcoin mining operations alone consumed greater than 150 terawatt hours yearly (as of Could 2022), per the paper, placing into perspective the potential impression the proposed quantum-based programs might have.
The pair’s conclusions had been based mostly on experiments evaluating three totally different quantum mining programs to an Antminer S19 XP ASIC miner.
The quantum mining units had been cut up between a system that includes a single layer of fault tolerance, one other one with two layers of fault tolerance and one with none devoted error-correction options.
Because the researchers level out, blockchain mining is without doubt one of the few areas of quantum computing the place error correction isn’t such an enormous deal. In most quantum capabilities, errors create noise that functionally restrict a computing system’s capacity to supply correct computations.
In blockchain mining, nonetheless, success charges with state-of-the-art classical programs are nonetheless comparatively low. Per the analysis paper, “A classical Bitcoin miner is worthwhile with solely a success-rate of about 0.000070%.”
The researchers additionally word that, not like classical programs, quantum-based programs can truly be fine-tuned over time for elevated accuracy and effectivity.
Associated: How does quantum computing impression the finance trade?
Whereas quantum computing know-how continues to be thought of to be in its infancy, the very particular downside of blockchain mining doesn’t require a full-service quantum computing answer. Because the researchers put it, “a quantum miner just isn’t, and needn’t be, a scalable, common quantum pc. A quantum miner want solely carry out a single activity.”
In the end, the researchers conclude that it must be potential to construct miners utilizing present quantum applied sciences that reveal quantum benefit over classical computer systems.
Regardless of the potential vitality financial savings, it bears point out that the researchers centered on a kind of quantum computing system referred to as a “noisy intermediate-scale quantum” (NISQ) system.
Based on the preprint paper, quantum miners ought to reveal “huge” vitality financial savings at a dimension of round 512 quantum bits, or “qubits” — a time period considerably analogous to classical computing bits.
Usually, nonetheless, NISQ programs solely function with about 50-100 qubits, although there doesn’t seem like an trade normal.
Whereas the vitality financial savings may be possible, the prices of constructing and sustaining a quantum computing system within the 512 qubit vary have, historically, been prohibitive for many organizations.
Solely D-Wave and IBM provide client-facing programs in the identical vary (D-Wave’s D2 is a 512-qubit processor, and IBM’s Osprey weighs in at 433), however their architectures differ so vastly that comparisons between their qubit counts are ostensibly meaningless.
