REG-Quantum Blockchain Technologies Plc: Patent Application

Quantum Blockchain TechnologiesAnnouncement

24/07/2023 07:15

24 July 2023

 

Quantum Blockchain Technologies Plc
( “QBT” or “the Company”)

 

ASIC EnhancedBoost – Patent Application

 

QBT (AIM: QBT) is pleased to announce that its cryptography expert and
Cryptographic Optimisation team have developed what the Board believes to be
an innovative approach to SHA-256 optimised computation for Bitcoin
(“BTC”) mining. The Company believes that this novel approach, called
Message Scheduling For Cryptographic Hashing (“MSFCA”), addresses one of
the most challenging problems in BTC mining: partial pre-computing of future
blockchains’ blocks.

 

A patent application in respect of MSFCA has been filed at the UK Intellectual
Property Office. If the application is successful, the Company intends to
apply for the patent to be extended internationally.

 

SUMMARY

 
* MSFCA can perform pre-calculations for future BTC blocks before the current
block is closed
* Allows miners to use less logic gates, thus lower energy costs
* Implementation can be made to QBT’s current SHA-256 architecture with
feasible modifications
* Effective potential area saving is around 8%
 

BACKGROUND

 

Approximately every ten minutes a block is added to the BTC blockchain. Each
new block represents the confirmation of the validity of the encrypted
transactions, i.e. transfer of BTCs between senders and receivers, usually
between, on average, 2,000 and 3,000. The miner who finds the winning hash for
the block within ten minutes, causes the block to be closed and receives the
reward; currently 6.25 BTCs, plus the transaction fees. A new block in the
following ten minutes can then start to be processed, but only when the
previous block has been closed, because the starting information to compute
the new blocks, contains information from the previous closed block.

 

MSFCA

 

The computational optimisation obtained by MSFCA allows, under BTC mining
special conditions, the miner to asynchronously perform (i.e. not within the
temporal boundaries of the current block being computed) partial
pre-computations of future blocks, before the ten minute computation ‘time
target’ for closing a new block begins. The benefit being that all the
logical gates and computation time on the ASIC chip needed for the specific
partial pre-computation are saved.

 

QBT believes this is a novel procedure, potentially capable, in certain
conditions, of addressing a key BTC mining limitation that prevents
asynchronous pre-computation of a new block in the blockchain prior to the
previous block being closed.

 

Application of MSFCA is not believed to enhance SHA-256’s computation
performance time; however, by enabling partial SHA-256 pre-processing of the
block, it makes it possible to save the hardware resources otherwise necessary
for standard SHA-256 computation. From this perspective, it is anticipated
that energy would be saved due to less logic gates being present on the ASIC
allowing the same chip area to be used to implement additional SHA-256 engines
and increasing the overall speed of the process.

 

The key principle of this approach is that the partial pre-computation can
occur asynchronously. Implementation of MSFCA will require a specific ASIC
architecture, hence a specific ASIC chip will need to be designed, however the
Company believes this would only require a feasible modification of the
current SHA-256 proprietary implementation being developed by QBT.

 

In terms of SHA-256 ASIC chip areas, the projected potential saving would be
in the region of 25% for one instance of SHA256 out of the three instances
involved in Bitcoin mining. However, because of other well-known optimisation
techniques, the effective potential area saving of MSFCA is estimated by the
Company’s ASIC designer to be around 8% on average.

 

The handling of pre-processed data requires additional circuitry, the impact
of which is expected to be negligible in the near future.

 

While MSFCA can be implemented with currently available technology, by adding
a logical gate overhead, in the near future, the Company believes these
overheads will be less relevant, making this approach even more competitive.

 

Despite present technological limitations, (for example, the limited
throughput of memory chips), the Company believes that it is strategically
important to file a patent application covering the novel approach created
through the use of MSFCA.

 

Francesco Gardin, CEO and Chairman commented: “While at this juncture we
cannot go into the specific details of what we believe is an innovative
solution designed by our R&D cryptography team, suffice it to say that the new
concept behind this idea disrupts, under special conditions, a fundamental BTC
blockchain paradigm; computation for future blocks can take place before the
previous block is mined. This is quite a radical change of the paradigm, and
we believe it is well worth a patent application.

 

“The current advantage of this approach is the partial pre-processing of a
future BTC blocks, thereby potentially making redundant a large number of
logic gates of a BTC mining ASIC chip, representing a material cost saving,
when considering the hundreds of thousands of ASIC chips used in any
mid-to-large sized BTC mining facility.”

 

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.

 

 

For further information please contact:

 

Quantum Blockchain Technologies Plc
Francesco Gardin, CEO and Executive Chairman +39 335 296573

 

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

 

Leander (Financial PR)
Christian Taylor-Wilkinson +44 (0) 7795 168 157

About Quantum Blockchain Technologies Plc

QBT (AIM: QBT) is an AIM listed investment company which has recently
realigned its strategic focus to technology related investments, with special
regard to Quantum computing, Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies and AI sectors. The
Company has commenced an aggressive R&D and investment programme in the
dynamic world of Blockchain Technology, which includes cryptocurrency mining
and other advanced blockchain applications.

Glossary of Terms

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.

Asynchronous Pre-Computation: Computation performed in advance of the main
computation, reducing therefore the amount of logic gates or software code of
the main computation.

Chip Area: The silicon area of a computer chip used by the logical gates,
measured in square millimeters. In general, the smaller the area the less
energy required.

 

MSCFA: Acronym of Message Scheduling For Cryptographic Hashing, which is a key
part of the SHA-256 Algorithm to be computed before the 64 compression steps.

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.

Ten Minutes Computation Time Target: is the block time on the BTC blockchain,
which is 10 minutes. This means that every 10 minutes a new block of
transactions is added to the blockchain and transactions within the block are
considered to be “processed”.

 



Copyright (c) 2023 PR Newswire Association,LLC. All Rights Reserved