REG-Quantum Blockchain Technologies Plc: Business Update

Quantum Blockchain TechnologiesAnnouncement

12/03/2025 07:15

12 March 2025

 

Quantum Blockchain Technologies plc

("QBT" or "the Company")

 

 

General Business Update

 

Quantum Blockchain Technologies (AIM: QBT), the AIM-listed investment company
focused principally on a research, development and investment programme within
blockchain technology is pleased to provide a general business update.

 

 

Update on the porting of Method A and Method B onto commercial mining rigs

 

In addition to the Method C developments announced on 17 January 2025, the
Company has also been seeking to improve the AI Models of Methods A and B.
This work has been restricted by the severe limitations caused by the way
SHA-256 is implemented on the most widely used Bitcoin mining ASIC chips.

 

The QBT Client version of Method B implemented initially onto the CGminer
operating system has, as previously reported, now been ported onto the
ESPminer operating system. This change meant that the Company was able to
commence real-time mining testing using Bitaxe, an open hardware and software
project which makes Bitcoin miners available using between one and six ASIC
chips from the largest manufacturer of such devices. Specifically, the
hardware used by the R&D team are the BM1362, BM1366 and BM1368 ASIC
processors.

 

As a result of the R&D team's deep understanding of CGminer, the
implementation of the QBT Client under the ESPminer operating system
environment was completed in December 2024. The very recent acquisition of the
Bitaxe Gamma model using the BM1370 ASIC, the same chip used in the latest
version of the most powerful Bitcoin mining rigs available on the market, has
opened up the possibility of developing the original version of Method B. The
Company believes that this is a significant development as the original
version of Method B (as announced on 10 May 2023) potentially achieved (in lab
tests) the best mining advantage against standard mining rigs.

 

Consistency checks between the data generated by the BM1370 ASIC and past lab
results are being undertaken before modifying the mining rigs' CGminer
operating systems so as to allow the installation of the QBT Client version of
Method B.  

 

The Company is currently considering its additional hardware choices for the
deployment of Method B as there are a number of viable options available in
addition to BM1370 ASIC. One such chip would be Intel's BZM2 chip although
there are very limited numbers available due to the chip no longer being in
production. A U.S. company, Block, Inc. has announced the release of a
prototype ASIC chip which QBT believes could be suitable.

 

Regarding Method A, it is currently mining live in QBT's Milan-based lab in
single chip mode, using commercial ASICs for Bitcoin mining connected to an
existing mining pool. Operational performance of Method A is currently being
assessed based on the hash rate and measured by the pool and the corresponding
rewards awarded, comparing one ASIC chip running with Method A and one
without. Further development work is to be conducted by the R&D team to
finalise a multiple ASIC chip version which can be ported by QBT's software
engineers onto existing miners manufactured by the dominant players within
this sector.

 

Patent Applications

 

The current status of the first two filed patent applications ("Asic
UltraBoost" and "Asic EnhancedBoost") is still pending, with the normal
interactions between the European Patent Office examiners and the Company. The
third patent application ("Implementation of Binary Decision Tree") has been
recently filed with the UK patent office, as reported on 15 January 2025.

 

The quantum computing version of SHA-256 implementation is still being held in
draft form with the Company's patent attorney, with filing with the UK patent
office now expected within the next few months. This is because the Company
gave filing priority to the Binary Decision Tree application supporting Method
C hardware implementation.

 

 

QBT proprietary ASIC chip

 

On 13 March 2024, the Company announced an update about its efforts to develop
a prototype version of an in-house proprietary ASIC chip using large scale
integration for demo purposes. In the last few months, this internal project
has been put on hold to enable the focus of the design team to be temporarily
redirected to support the R&D AI teams, in particular Method C's AI Oracle
project.

 

Meanwhile, a basic ASIC chip for Bitcoin mining design architecture which
includes the improvements of the first patent application remains available as
a QBT asset, which the Company, under the right circumstances and with the
right partner, could develop into a product, also hosting the Method C AI
Oracle.

 

 

Sipiem In Liquidazione Spa ("Sipiem") litigation

 

In January 2025, the defendants in the Company subsidiary Clear Leisure 2017
Ltd's ("CL2017") lawsuit against the former directors and members of the
statutory audit committee of Sipiem filed an appeal with the Italian Court of
Cassation (Italy's highest court for civil and commercial matters) against the
judgement of the lower Court of Appeal of Venice issued in June 2024
("Judgement").  

 

The former Sipiem directors contested the Judgement on various grounds, as did
its former members of the statutory audit committee. In particular, the latter
have asked the Court of Cassation to send the case back to the Court of Appeal
in order for the interested parties to appear in a hearing and finalise the
tentative settlement agreement among them. The tentative settlement agreement,
with respect to the waivers granted to CL2017 was conditional on the judicial
settlement being validated by the Court of Appeal prior to the Judgement,
which did not occur. The members of the statutory audit committee have also
asked for the Judgement to be vacated as regards the finding of liability
against them.

 

In general, the Italian legal counsel for the Company believe that legal
arguments raised by the defendants, with the exception of the request of the
members of the statutory audit committee regarding revisitation of the
settlement, are fundamentally the same ones already raised and discussed in
the first instance and in appeal, although they are now formulated in the
context of the proceedings before the Court of Cassation. On 20 February 2025,
CL2017 filed its brief asking the Court of Cassation to confirm the Judgement
of the Court of Appeal. The proceedings before the Court of Cassation are
expected to last not less than three years.

 

In the meantime, CL2017 is allowed to continue its enforcement procedures
trying to seize the assets of the defendants, unless the defendants obtain an
order from the Court of Appeal that put such actions on hold until the Court
of Cassation issues its final judgement.

 

 

The Company's legacy assets:

 

Forcrowd Srl ("Forcrowd") - 41.17% ownership

 

Following last year's award of the EU extension of the Italian crowdfunding
licence, the Forcrowd website has been redesigned to comply with the
corresponding new legislation. Forcrowd currently expects to relaunch
fundraising campaigns during the course of 2025.

 

Geosim Systems ("Geosim") - 4.53% ownership

 

Despite the complex situation in the Israeli region, Geosim continues to
operate as a developer of 3D models of international airports in North
America, Europe and Asia.

 

More Legal Srl ("More Legal", previously PBV Monitor Srl) - 0.45% ownership

 

Following recent fundraising by More Legal, QBT's shareholding has been
diluted from 10% to 0.45%. QBT continues to assist More Legal in areas in
which it has expertise, specifically a recent AI project to increase
analytical productivity.

 

In general, QBT's policy regarding its investments is to be a passive investor
while providing all possible resources to the R&D programme.

 

 

Francesco Gardin, CEO and Chairman commented: "After nearly four years of R&D,
we have managed to prove that our technology can predict and to some extent,
control, SHA-256 in its version for Bitcoin mining. The outcome of this work
is the production of three disruptive Bitcoin products, namely the three AI
Methods.

 

"As previously reported, we are in a position to make live demonstrations
connected to Bitcoin pools for Method A and Method C, and it is the Company's
intention to make the first of these demonstrations at the Bitcoin `Mining
Disrupt' conference in Miami (Fort Lauderdale) occurring between March 25-27,
2025. Furthermore, the availability of the BM1370 ASIC chips could allow us to
add Method B to our live demo capabilities in the near future.

 

"QBT's planned attendance at `Mining Disrupt' and at `2025 Bitcoin' in Las
Vegas at the end of May will represent another opportunity to show our
products to potential clients and partners."

 

 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of
the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law
by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 ("MAR"), and is
disclosed in accordance with the Company's obligations under Article 17 of
MAR.

 

-ends-

 

For further information please contact:

 

Quantum Blockchain Technologies Plc +39 335 296573

Francesco Gardin, CEO and Executive Chairman

 

SP Angel Corporate Finance (Nominated Adviser & Broker) +44 (0) 20 3470 0470

Jeff Keating

 

Leander (Financial PR) +44 (0) 7795 168 157

Christian Taylor-Wilkinson

 

 

About Quantum Blockchain Technologies Plc

 

QBT (AIM: QBT) is a London Stock Exchange AIM listed Research & Development
and investing company focused on an intensive R&D programme to disrupt the
Blockchain Technologies sector, and which includes, cryptocurrency mining and
other advanced blockchain applications. The primary goal of the R&D programme
is to develop Bitcoin mining tools and techniques, via its technology-driven
approach, which the Company believes will significantly outperform existing
market practices.

 

Glossary of Terms

 

AI Oracle: It is an intelligent system which is designed for only answering
questions and has no ability to act in the world.

 

ASIC: An Application-Specific Integrated Circuit is an integrated circuit chip
customized for a particular use, rather than intended for general-purpose use.
ASIC chips are typically fabricated using metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS)
technology, as MOS integrated circuit chips.

 

Bitaxe Gamma Model: a compact, open-source Bitcoin miner based on BM13xx ASIC
family chips, designed for efficient and affordable personal mining.

 

ESPminer: a recently developed public domain operating system for Bitcoin
mining devices, based on the ESP32 microcontroller.

 

Method A: A Machine Learning based development by QBT R&D team, aimed at
reducing the SHA-256 search space, compared to the brute force method used by
BTC mining rigs today.

 

Method B: A Machine Learning and statistical optimisation technologies
developed by QBT R&D team, reducing the SHA-256 search space, but radically
different from Method A.

 

Method C: A Machine Learning based development by QBT R&D team which is
composed by an AI model to be trained and an AI Oracle (the result of the
training of the model). The AI Oracle assesses in real time the likelihood of
an input to SHA-256 to generate a winning hash.

 

QBT Client: The part of the method that is installed on the miner (i.e.,
client) whilst the intelligence part remains on our servers.

 

SHA-256: Secure Hashing Algorithm (SHA)-256 is the hash function and mining
algorithm of the Bitcoin protocol, referring to the cryptographic hash
function that outputs a 256 bits long value.

 

Single chip mode: A Bitcoin mining device using only one ASIC chip.



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