Quantum Blockchain Technologies PLC (AIM: QBT) has recently achieved a noteworthy milestone in protecting and advancing its pioneering innovation. The company has submitted a patent application for its Message Scheduling For Cryptographic Hashing (MSFCA) technology to the UK Intellectual Property Office.
The MSFCA technology tackles an intricate issue in the realm of bitcoin mining, specifically the partial pre-computation of forthcoming blockchain blocks. While MSFCA does not directly improve the performance time of SHA-256 computation, it does allow for partial pre-processing of SHA-256, resulting in savings in hardware resources.
By optimizing the quantity of logic gates on the ASIC bitcoin mining circuit, it is possible to effectively allocate the same chip area for additional SHA-256 engines. This enhancement would result in a higher mining speed and potentially lead to energy conservation.
Quantum is striving to implement MSFCA by making practical modifications to its existing proprietary SHA-256 implementation. The technology is expected to provide a potential cost reduction of around 25% in terms of the surface area required for SHA-256 ASIC chips for one of the three instances involved in bitcoin mining. When implemented alongside other optimization techniques, the ASIC designer at the company predicts an average effective potential area reduction of approximately 8%.
Despite the existing technological limitations, Quantum Blockchain acknowledges the significant worth of the innovative approach enabled by MSFCA. As a result, the company has taken steps to protect its intellectual property by filing a patent application.
Francesco Gardin, the CEO and Chairman of Quantum Blockchain, highlighted the importance of the groundbreaking solution developed by the research and development cryptography team. This solution presents a challenge to a fundamental paradigm of the BTC blockchain. The innovative concept enables computation for upcoming blocks to take place prior to the completion of the preceding block, resulting in a significant shift in the overall approach.
Quantum’s MSFCA technology shows promise for mid-to-large-sized BTC mining facilities by potentially rendering a significant number of logic gates in a BTC mining ASIC chip obsolete. This has the potential to result in substantial cost savings.
