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Google’s recent announcement of the arrival of Willow, a quantum chip that has reduced the error tendencies of some of its predecessors, is a milestone in the effort to bring quantum computing into the real world, and in the years ahead, it could change the way we think about the risk in cryptocurrencies.

Willow’s speed is almost incomprehensible — according to Google, it’s able to perform a computation in under five minutes that would take one of today’s fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years to solve. Ten septillion is 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years.

But the accuracy of quantum computing has, until now, also been a big issue, with quantum like a garden hose on full blast with no one holding it: the water is coming out fast, but its aim is not consistently accurate. Willow’s combination of speed and accuracy could theoretically provide hackers with the tools to unlock the algorithms that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are built upon.

Qubits and bitcoin can coexist, for now 

If you don’t understand (not many people do) what makes up quantum computing — qubits — security company DigiCert’s industry technology strategist, Tim Hollebeek, has a simplified way of thinking about the breakthrough. He says imagine a maze and how a classical computer would try to find its way through the maze from start to finish. It would try one potential path at a time. “A quantum computer would be able to try each path at the same time, resulting in a much faster solution,” Hollebeek said.

While Willow may not be ready for real-world applications yet, Willow’s speed and accuracy will help pave the way for larger-scale quantum computers.

“Part of the issue with qubits is that they are unstable and produce errors. This chip has significant error correction capabilities, which mitigates some of the qubit issues,”  Hollebeek said.

That means chips improving upon Willow’s breakthrough will be able to help hackers target crypto — but at least for the moment, the concern is only theoretical.

“Quantum computers can theoretically solve this much faster and pose a threat to today’s cryptographic algorithms if a quantum computer with sufficient qubits could be developed,” Hollebeek said. But he added that the real-world reason for breathing easier today if you own crypto is simple. “None exist today and are not expected for at least another 5, 10, 15 years,” he said, with the fastest five-year timeline contingent on some unforeseen technological breakthrough.

A decade-long lead for crypto

A Google spokesman told CNBC that Willow and crypto can coexist. “The Willow chip is incapable of breaking modern cryptography,” he said, adding that it is also the view of Google that quantum technology with that capability is still years off.

In fact, according to Park Feierbach, an expert in decentralized finance technology who is CEO of Radiant Commons, even if Willow can drastically increase the speed at which crypto could be broken, it would still take several times the age of the universe for the quantum chip to do it. According to NASA, the universe is 13.7 billion years old.

“There’s almost no reason to deploy Willow on this technology in a way that could make tractable progress. It would simply still take too long,” Feierbach said.

“Estimates are we’re at least 10 years out from breaking RSA, and that around 4 million physical qubits would be required to do this,” the Google spokesman said. RSA is an encryption system used in cryptocurrencies.

For reference, Google’s processors are now on the scale of about 100 physical qubits.

‘Quantum-safe’ algorithms

The Google spokesman stressed that the timeline for quantum breakthroughs has been widely shared and Willow has not changed it.

“Google is on track with our planned roadmap,” he said. “The security community has long been aware of the projected timeline to break asymmetric encryption, and has been working on defining standards and collaboratively implementing new algorithms that will resist attacks by both classical and quantum computers,” the spokesman added.

Indeed, Hollebeek says that the crypto industry is working on “quantum-safe” crypto.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released several quantum-safe algorithms that are resistant to attacks by future quantum computers, Hollebeek said, and NIST has a timeline for governments and industry to deploy these algorithms to ensure the safety of the nation’s and businesses secrets.

“Google and other industry leaders have supported standardization and experimented with the algorithms in their draft form,” the Google spokesman said.

Despite how efficient quantum is at unlocking algorithms (traditional crypto equations based on factoring huge prime numbers), it isn’t infallible, and that is where the promise lies in quantum-safe crypto.

“They’re really, really good at some things, but not everything,” Hollebeek said, noting that breaking conventional asymmetric cryptography just happens to be one of the things they are really good at. “Luckily, there are other hard math problems they are bad at, and asymmetric cryptography can be updated to use those hard math problems instead of factoring,” he said.

Taqi Raza, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said existing cryptos will have to evolve to ward off qubits. “As the potential for quantum computers to break existing cryptography becomes more of a concern, new cryptocurrencies specifically designed to be quantum-safe could be developed. These new quantum cryptos would integrate PQC, cryptographic algorithms that are resistant to the computational power of quantum computers,” Raza said.

Jeremy Allaire, co-founder, chairman & CEO of digital currency company Circle, told CNBC in an interview last week that the risk is real, but his view of the future remains focused on the opportunities that will evolve. “The bottom line is quantum crypto means that you can both unlock things more easily, things that had bad old locks, but you can also create better locks,” Allaire said. “So quantum crypto – this quantum is going to be actually a huge turbocharge to crypto computing, to crypto applications, and to crypto money.”

Raza thinks that ultimately the more sweeping changes wrought by quantum computing will occur beyond crypto. Breakthroughs will make devices and software faster, revolutionize AI, and improve data security with ultra-secure encryption methods. In everyday life, there will be advances in computing, healthcare, energy, and security, Raza said, and as a result, it is not the crypto industry we should be thinking about in isolation while these changes are still developing. “They will likely transform industries,” he said.

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Google agrees to pay Texas $1.4 billion data privacy settlement

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Google agrees to pay Texas .4 billion data privacy settlement

A Google corporate logo hangs above the entrance to the company’s office at St. John’s Terminal in New York City on March 11, 2025.

Gary Hershorn | Corbis News | Getty Images

Google agreed to pay nearly $1.4 billion to the state of Texas to settle allegations of violating the data privacy rights of state residents, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Friday.

Paxton sued Google in 2022 for allegedly unlawfully tracking and collecting the private data of users.

The attorney general said the settlement, which covers allegations in two separate lawsuits against the search engine and app giant, dwarfed all past settlements by other states with Google for similar data privacy violations.

Google’s settlement comes nearly 10 months after Paxton obtained a $1.4 billion settlement for Texas from Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, to resolve claims of unauthorized use of biometric data by users of those popular social media platforms.

“In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law,” Paxton said in a statement on Friday.

“For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won,” said Paxton.

“This $1.375 billion settlement is a major win for Texans’ privacy and tells companies that they will pay for abusing our trust.”

Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said the company did not admit any wrongdoing or liability in the settlement, which involves allegations related to the Chrome browser’s incognito setting, disclosures related to location history on the Google Maps app, and biometric claims related to Google Photo.

Castaneda said Google does not have to make any changes to products in connection with the settlement and that all of the policy changes that the company made in connection with the allegations were previously announced or implemented.

“This settles a raft of old claims, many of which have already been resolved elsewhere, concerning product policies we have long since changed,” Castaneda said.

“We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services.”

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Virtual chronic care company Omada Health files for IPO

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Virtual chronic care company Omada Health files for IPO

Omada Health smart devices in use.

Courtesy: Omada Health

Virtual care company Omada Health filed for an IPO on Friday, the latest digital health company that’s signaled its intent to hit the public markets despite a turbulent economy.

Founded in 2012, Omada offers virtual care programs to support patients with chronic conditions like prediabetes, diabetes and hypertension. The company describes its approach as a “between-visit care model” that is complementary to the broader health-care ecosystem, according to its prospectus.

Revenue increased 57% in the first quarter to $55 million, up from $35.1 million during the same period last year, the filing said. The San Francisco-based company generated $169.8 million in revenue during 2024, up 38% from $122.8 million the previous year.

Omada’s net loss narrowed to $9.4 million during its first quarter from $19 million during the same period last year. It reported a net loss of $47.1 million in 2024, compared to a $67.5 million net loss during 2023.

The IPO market has been largely dormant across the tech sector for the past three years, and within digital health, it’s been almost completely dead. After President Donald Trump announced a sweeping tariff policy that plunged U.S. markets into turmoil last month, taking a company public is an even riskier endeavor. Online lender Klarna delayed its long-anticipated IPO, as did ticket marketplace StubHub.

But Omada Health isn’t the first digital health company to file for its public market debut this year. Virtual physical therapy startup Hinge Health filed its prospectus in March, and provided an update with its first-quarter earnings on Monday, a signal to investors that it’s looking to forge ahead.

Omada contracts with employers, and the company said it works with more than 2,000 customers and supports 679,000 members as of March 31. More than 156 million Americans suffer from at least one chronic condition, so there is a significant market opportunity, according to the company’s filing.

In 2022, Omada announced a $192 million funding round that pushed its valuation above $1 billion. U.S. Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Fidelity’s FMR LLC are the largest outside shareholders in the company, each owning between 9% and 10% of the stock.

“To our prospective shareholders, thank you for learning more about Omada. I invite you join our journey,” Omada co-founder and CEO Sean Duffy said in the filing. “In front of us is a unique chance to build a promising and successful business while truly changing lives.”

WATCH: The IPO market is likely to pick up near Labor Day, says FirstMark’s Rick Heitzmann

The IPO market is likely to pick up near Labor Day, says FirstMark's Rick Heitzmann

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Google would need to shift up to 2,000 employees for antitrust remedies, search head says

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Google would need to shift up to 2,000 employees for antitrust remedies, search head says

Liz Reid, vice president, search, Google speaks during an event in New Delhi on December 19, 2022.

Sajjad Hussain | AFP | Getty Images

Testimony in Google‘s antitrust search remedies trial that wrapped hearings Friday shows how the company is calculating possible changes proposed by the Department of Justice.

Google head of search Liz Reid testified in court Tuesday that the company would need to divert between 1,000 and 2,000 employees, roughly 20% of Google’s search organization, to carry out some of the proposed remedies, a source with knowledge of the proceedings confirmed.

The testimony comes during the final days of the remedies trial, which will determine what penalties should be taken against Google after a judge last year ruled the company has held an illegal monopoly in its core market of internet search.

The DOJ, which filed the original antitrust suit and proposed remedies, asked the judge to force Google to share its data used for generating search results, such as click data. It also asked for the company to remove the use of “compelled syndication,” which refers to the practice of making certain deals with companies to ensure its search engine remains the default choice in browsers and smartphones. 

Read more CNBC tech news

Google pays Apple billions of dollars per year to be the default search engine on iPhones. It’s lucrative for Apple and a valuable way for Google to get more search volume and users.

Apple’s SVP of Services Eddy Cue testified Wednesday that Apple chooses to feature Google because it’s “the best search engine.”

The DOJ also proposed the company divest its Chrome browser but that was not included in Reid’s initial calculation, the source confirmed.

Reid on Tuesday said Google’s proprietary “Knowledge Graph” database, which it uses to surface search results, contains more than 500 billion facts, according to the source, and that Google has invested more than $20 billion in engineering costs and content acquisition over more than a decade.

“People ask Google questions they wouldn’t ask anyone else,” she said, according to the source.

Reid echoed Google’s argument that sharing its data would create privacy risks, the source confirmed.

Closing arguments for the search remedies trial will take place May 29th and 30th, followed by the judge’s decision expected in August.

The company faces a separate remedies trial for its advertising tech business, which is scheduled to begin Sept. 22.

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