Google's Quantum AI team has released a new whitepaper indicating that breaking the cryptography used by Bitcoin and Ethereum may require fewer than 500,000 physical qubits, a figure significantly lower than the millions often cited in recent years. According to NS3. AI, Google researchers suggest that a prepared attacker could complete the final step in approximately nine minutes after a Bitcoin public key appears in a live transaction, compared to the roughly 10 minutes needed for confirmation. The researchers also pointed out that Taproot, a Bitcoin upgrade, may increase exposure because it makes public keys visible by default