College of Kent specialists contrasted three quantum frameworks with an ASIC excavator, and the quantum machines were certifiably more energy-effective.
A study comparing energy consumption rates for current ASIC-based miners to proposed quantum-based solutions was recently conducted by two scientists from the School of Computing at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom.
In terms of energy efficiency, the systems that use quantum computing clearly outperformed conventional mining rigs, as stated in the team's preprint research paper:
“We show that the transition to quantum-based mining could incur an energy saving — by relatively conservative estimates — of about roughly 126.7 TWH, or put differently the total energy consumption of Sweden in 2020.”
According to the paper, Bitcoin mining operations alone consumed more than 150 terawatt hours annually (as of May 2022), putting the proposed quantum-based systems' potential impact into perspective.
The pair's decisions depended on tests contrasting three different quantum mining frameworks with an Antminer S19 XP ASIC excavator.
The quantum mining gadgets were divided between a framework highlighting a solitary layer of adaptation to internal failure, another with two layers of adaptation to internal failure, and one with next to no committed blunder remedy highlights.
According to the findings of the study, blockchain mining is one of the few applications of quantum computing in which error correction is not particularly significant. Errors generate noise in the majority of quantum functions, which functionally restricts a computing system's capacity to produce accurate computations.
In blockchain mining, notwithstanding, achievement rates with cutting-edge traditional frameworks are still moderately low. "A classical Bitcoin miner is profitable with only a success rate of about 0.000070%," states the research paper.
Quantum-based systems, in contrast to classical ones, can be tweaked over time to improve efficiency and accuracy, according to the researchers.
Related: What effects does quantum computing have on the financial sector?
The very specific problem of blockchain mining does not necessitate a full-service quantum computing solution, even though quantum computing technology is still considered to be in its infancy. “A quantum miner is not, and need not be, a scalable, universal quantum computer,” according to the researchers. A quantum miner only needs to do one thing.
In the end, the researchers came to the conclusion that existing quantum technologies could be used to construct miners that demonstrate a quantum advantage over conventional computers.
In spite of the potential energy reserve funds, it bears notice that the specialists zeroed in on a sort of quantum figuring framework called a "loud halfway scale quantum" (NISQ) framework.
At 512 quantum bits, or "qubits," a term somewhat analogous to classical computing bits, the preprint paper claims that quantum miners should demonstrate "massive" energy savings.
NISQ systems, on the other hand, typically only require between 50 and 100 qubits to function, though there does not appear to be a standard for the industry.
While the energy reserve funds may be plausible, the expenses of building and maintaining a quantum figuring framework in the 512 qubit range have, customarily, been restrictive for most associations.
Just D-Wave and IBM offer client-facing frameworks in a similar range (D-Wave's D2 is a 512-qubit processor, and IBM's Osprey tips the scales at 433), but their models vary so extraordinarily that examinations between their qubit counts are apparently useless.
(TRISTAN GREENE, CoinTelegraph, 2023)