Quantum Blockchain Technologies PLC (AIM:QBT) has provided an update on its ongoing R&D efforts aimed at developing disruptive bitcoin mining technologies.
Over the past four months, the company has concentrated on improving its AI methods, referred to as Methods A, B, and C, and adapting them for use on existing commercial mining hardware.
The company’s short-term goal is to achieve real-time bitcoin mining through collaboration with a leading bitcoin miner.
To support this, QBT is pursuing international patents for its intellectual property, while also continuing to develop new patent applications.
QBT's chief research officer, Francesco Gardin, along with senior colleagues, recently attended premier bitcoin conferences in the US, where they showcased the company’s technology and explored potential partnerships.
As part of its ongoing R&D activities, QBT has made the decision to move away from the CGMiner software platform in favour of ESP-miner.
The company believes that this switch will enhance the efficiency and reliability of its mining operations.
In addition to software improvements, QBT is working with the latest ASIC chips to test its AI methods in real-time mining environments.
Laboratory tests of Methods A, B, and C have shown consistent positive results, and the company is now preparing for live mining tests.
Gardin said: “Most of the current and recent efforts of the Company are focused on the porting of the Methods onto commercial hardware mining platforms.
“The skill set for the porting projects is completely different from AI know-how used in the design and development of the three Methods by our R&D teams.
“A very experienced software engineer from Milan University joined the core software engineers’ group nine months ago, and we feel this group now has all the necessary skills to successfully undertake the porting task to a real-time Bitcoin mining environment.
“This complex technical step of the process is the precondition for deploying QBT’s technology and entering into pragmatic partnership and commercial discussions with the major players of the sector, all of whom are very aware of QBT’s technology and all of whom are just waiting for real-time.
“The decision to switch to the ESP-miner operating system, running on ESP32-S3 Espressif MCU and using Bm1366 ASIC chips, will definitely accelerate moving in this direction.”