Quantum computing firm dangles $22,500 Bitcoin prize — all you have to do is uncover a private key hidden inside a quantum-optimized problem

BlueQubit's challenge.

Quantum-software firm BlueQubit has launched its Quantum Advantage Challenge, offering a 0.25 BTC wallet prize to the winner. The overall goal of the competition is to prove that a ‘Quantum Advantage’ exists in solving a real-world cryptography problem. BlueQubit says it can find a hidden bitstring in a 2⁵⁶ search space, the key to its 0.25 BTC prize wallet, in “under two hours.” Conversely, it reckons that even the fastest classical supercomputer would take “years” to solve the problem. The challenge is now open at www.bluequbit.io.

“We wanted a clear, public, and verifiable way to demonstrate quantum advantage,” said Hayk Tepanyan, BlueQubit CTO, explaining the idea behind the Quantum Advantage Challenge. “There’s no better proof than a problem where a quantum computer can extract a real cryptographic key in hours and where classical algorithms may simply be outmatched.”