QBT Quantum Blockchain Technologies Plc

 
TIDMQBT 
 
15 November 2022 
 
                      Quantum Blockchain Technologies Plc 
                           ( "QBT" or "the Company") 
 
                                  R&D Update 
 
The board of Quantum Blockchain Technologies (AIM: QBT) is pleased to update 
the market with the latest advances by its research and development ("R&D") 
team, which is working at developing proprietary methods to create cheaper, 
faster and more energy efficient Bitcoin ("BTC") miners. 
 
Highlights 
 
  * Preliminary results of Machine Learning Method "B" indicating 30% 
    improvement over commercially available ASIC chip-based miners, 
  * Regularities identified within the SHA-256 algorithm mark progress towards 
    potential patent filing 
  * Investigating potential of third-party licensing strategy to exploit early 
    revenues 
  * Appointment of Dr. Rita Pizzi as Chief Research Officer 
 
Machine Learning and AI 
 
The first results obtained by two of the Company's three Machine Learning (ML) 
groups in respect of the development of the Company's first two knowledge-based 
algorithms (described in the Company's RNS dated 23 May 2022 as Method "A" and 
Method "B"), relate to a prototype proprietary software accelerator for BTC 
mining, which is now in a position to undergo intensive testing. 
 
The computational requirements to validate both Method A and Method B by 
testing at the current level of difficulty of BTC extraction are very 
challenging. The Company has not ruled out the use of a supercomputer for such 
tests, but a more pragmatic approach in the short term is based on the use of 
existing market-available ASIC miners. The Company has already acquired a 
number of ASIC miners with the intention that the control software on the ASIC 
miners will be replaced by QBT's own proprietary software, based on Method B. 
 
Additional miners will be acquired to test the performance of both Method A and 
Method B at the current mining difficulty. 
 
Interesting preliminary laboratory results have been achieved to date with 
Method B, which is based on two different combined ML methods, indicating a 
statistical improvement of up to 30% over existing commercially available ASIC 
chip-based BTC miners. That is, regardless of the performance of the ASIC chip 
used by the miner, the Company's proprietary software could statistically still 
increase mining speeds by up to 30%, whilst not impacting the miner's power 
consumption. 
 
Provided that the performance of the Method "A" and / or Method "B" algorithms 
are confirmed, the goal is to run them on existing commercial miners to improve 
their performance, as stated above, by replacing the native control software 
with QBT's own control software. Based on current test data, we would expect to 
see an immediate improvement in the overall performance of the mining rig, 
without any need for additional hardware investment. 
 
To ensure the success of this approach, the Company is also working to modify 
the control software of the miner operating system. 
 
Quantum Computing 
 
While the Company believes its approach to Quantum Computing has great 
potential, it also believes that it will be some years before sufficiently 
powerful quantum computers become available to allow the Company to take full 
advantage of its approach. 
 
In the meantime, QBT is continuing to refine the quantum algorithm it has 
developed. 
 
SHA-256Optimisation 
 
The Company continues to work closely with its cryptography expert, who has now 
been consulting for QBT for 18 months. Our recent findings for local 
improvements of the SHA-256 computation are currently being collated in order 
to reach a critical mass, which (following up on the 23 May 2022 RNS) may have 
the potential to justify the filing of a new patent application relating 
specifically to a proprietary ASIC implementation. 
 
FPGA/ASIC 
 
While waiting for the consolidated results both from the cryptography expert 
and the ML R&D teams to be confirmed, the FPGA/ASIC Input/Output interface and 
the intra-ASIC communication protocols are being developed. 
 
At the same time, several performance assessments of different architectures 
which could be included in the ASIC design implementation of Method "B" have 
now been preliminarily evaluated, with the outcome expected to prove the 
efficiency of this method of hardware implementation. 
 
IT infrastructure 
 
During the last few months, the IT R&D platform has been improved, reaching 
nearly 100,000 GPU cores. Moreover, a first set of 100TH/s ASIC miners have 
been acquired, where the ML Method A and Method B mining software will shortly 
be installed. 
 
As referred to above, more ASIC miners are likely to be acquired shortly to 
speed up Method "A" and Method "B" testing. 
 
Chief Research Officer 
 
QBT has recently appointed Dr. Rita Pizzi, as its Chief Research Officer. Dr. 
Pizzi is a former senior researcher and professor of Artificial Intelligence 
and Data Analysis at the Department of Computer Science of Milan University ( 
http://pizzi.di.unimi.it/CV.html). Dr. Pizzi will be responsible for 
coordinating several research teams, while working in close operational contact 
with Francesco Gardin, QBT's chairman and CEO. Dr. Pizzi will not be joining 
the board at this time. 
 
Dr. Pizzi has been working with the Company for approximately 18 months. 
 
R&D Tax Relief 
 
The Company, as part of HMRC's "Research and Development Tax Relief" scheme, 
has received £109,000, net of adviser commissions and fees, from HMRC, as a 
contribution towards the Company's 2021 R&D costs. A similar application will 
be filed for 2022 R&D costs, at the beginning of 2023. 
 
Francesco Gardin, CEO and Executive Chairman of QBT, commented: "Whilst the 
Company is still considering direct mining, a more immediate and less 
capital-intensive approach is to exploit mining revenue with an existing BTC 
miner, who would be allowed, under licence, to adopt the Company's Method "B" 
control software. The Company is currently exploring this route. 
 
"We are engaged in an extremely demanding R&D effort to deliver competitive 
results. The amount of information processed to achieve these goals is huge, 
searching and analysing regularities in data spaces of large orders of 
magnitude. Verification testing on hypotheses of discovered regularities is 
extremely demanding, hence the disparity of the timing of results confirmation 
between a discovery and its confirmation. 
 
"I am therefore very pleased that despite the long verification time this 
approach is taking, such regularities and correlations have been identified. 
Moreover, the ability to control commercial ASIC mining chips with our Machine 
Learning methods, could provide a tactical shortcut to generate revenues. This 
will allow us to continue with our proprietary ASIC chip design and work on our 
Quantum Computing algorithm, pending the availability of quantum computers with 
enough qubits to run our software". 
 
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. 
 
FPGA: A field-programmable gate array is an integrated circuit designed to be 
configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturing - hence the term 
"field-programmable". The FPGA configuration is generally specified using a 
hardware description language (HDL), similar to that used for an 
application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). 
 
GPU: A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a computer chip that renders graphics 
and images by performing rapid mathematical calculations. 
 
Hash: A hash is a mathematical function that converts an input of arbitrary 
length into an encrypted output of a fixed length. 
 
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. 
 
Qubit: A classical bit can be in two states, it can be either zero or it can be 
one. A quantum bit or qubit, however, can be in a sort of zero state and in a 
one state at the same time. This situation is called a superposition of 
(quantum) states. Qubits have some very particular properties: for instance, it 
is not possible to make copies of qubits 
 
 
 
END 
 
 

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