The QDay Prize awarded 1 BTC for breaking a 15-bit ECC key via Shor’s algorithm, but the winning submission works identically with random number substitution.
Key Takeaways
Current quantum computers have ~1 error per 1,000 gates; cryptographic Shor’s algorithm requires billions of gates, and error correction is the unbridged gap.
For small problems, Shor’s algorithm succeeds by accident regardless of QC quality, so competition results reflect luck, not quantum progress.
GitHub user @yuvadm (Yuval Adam) confirmed: swapping the winning submission’s quantum calls for random calls produces indistinguishable results.
The winning circuit (ELDPC from Roetteler et al. 2017, Draper-style phase adders) is technically correct but contributes nothing a 1996 machine could not have produced.
Project11’s “512x jump” framing against a prior equally flawed demo compounds the credibility damage and hands critics a ready-made post-quantum transition gotcha.
