Quantum-Based Mining Outperforms ASIC Miners, Significantly Boosts Energy Efficiency

Researchers from the University of Kent conducted a study comparing energy consumption rates of quantum-based mining systems to ASIC miners. The results showed that quantum systems were significantly more energy-efficient. The transition to quantum-based mining could potentially save around 126.7 TWh of energy, equivalent to Sweden's total consumption in 2020. Bitcoin mining alone consumes over 150 TWh annually. The study compared three quantum mining systems with an Antminer S19 XP ASIC miner, and even systems with a single layer of fault tolerance outperformed the ASIC miner. Quantum miners don't require a full-scale quantum computer and can be fine-tuned over time for increased efficiency. However, the high costs of building and maintaining quantum computing systems in the 512-qubit range remain a challenge.