Wheelcroft

Case study

Halving Google's estimate for a quantum attack

Open research showed that a key step in a quantum attack on the encryption behind the world's largest digital assets needs less than half the computing power Google had estimated. We turned a technical paper into a story the right journalists wanted to tell.

Led by Theta Labs, with researchers from Eigen Labs, Trail of Bits, StarkWare and the Ethereum Foundation.

The problem

The result was important but hard to explain. It was a technical paper about one step of a quantum algorithm. Told badly, it becomes either "quantum computers will break everything tomorrow" or maths that nobody outside the field can follow.

What we did

We found the story inside the paper: more than 100 people and their AI agents beat Google's number in eight weeks. We wrote it so a non-specialist could follow it, kept every claim exact, and took it to the journalists who cover quantum computing, security and digital assets.

The message was careful on purpose. There is no attack today, but moving to new encryption takes years, so the work has to start now.

None of this is urgent because an attack is imminent … the remedy takes years and cannot be applied retroactively.Jieyi Long, Theta Labs, lead author

How the story travelled

Five weeks, three waves

  1. Launch day. CoinDesk, Decrypt, The Block and The Quantum Insider all run it. Yahoo Tech republishes Decrypt's story.
  2. Unchained follows with its own write-up.
  3. Smaller circuits from the same research make news again, with analysis from PostQuantum.

The coverage

Select any page to see it larger

CoinDesk · 10 Sep 2026Crypto researchers cut Bitcoin and Ethereum quantum attack estimate by 50%
Decrypt · 10 Sep 2026AI Agents Just Slashed the Cost of a Quantum Attack on Bitcoin
The Block · 10 Sep 2026Researchers halve quantum resource benchmark for key operation in Bitcoin, Ethereum attack
The Quantum Insider · 10 Sep 2026Researchers and AI Agents Cut Estimated Quantum Cost of Attacking Bitcoin Encryption by 86%
Yahoo Tech · 10 Sep 2026AI Agents Just Slashed the Cost of a Quantum Attack on Bitcoin (republished from Decrypt)
Unchained · 11 Sep 2026Researchers Cut the Estimated Quantum Cost of a Key Step in Attacking Bitcoin and Ethereum by More Than Half
PostQuantum · 14 Oct 2026A Key Step of a Quantum Attack on Bitcoin and Ethereum Now Fits in Under 900 Logical Qubits Within Google's Gate Budget

Every piece was earned, not bought.

Why it mattered

The story established Theta Labs in quantum security, a field well beyond its core work in GPU computing and enterprise AI. It placed the company alongside Google, Trail of Bits and the Ethereum Foundation in one of the most important debates in security.

Have research that deserves to be understood?

We find the story in hard material and take it to the people who should hear it.

Talk to usBack to Wheelcroft