Quantum Blockchain Technologies PLC (AIM:QBT) told investors it has seen a major uptick in performance from its ‘Method C’ Bitcoin mining technology during testing.
‘Method C’ is a proprietary predictive Bitcoin mining tool, which is impressing in lab rests. The successful implementation of Method C using mining hardware has enabled a performance increase to 50% from 30%, at lower mining difficulties.
"The combined effort and close cooperation of the Machine Learning Team, in conjunction with the hardware team, has been one of the keys to unlocking this astonishing and impressive result,” chief executive Francesco Gardin said in a statement.
"The company's strategy to use AI to improve the performance of SHA-256, despite the industry's common view that this was impossible, is so far proving successful and represents a potentially effective new approach to Bitcoin mining.”
The company is progressing IP protection, with a patent application underway, prior to deploying the technology for partners and key clients.
The Method C AI Oracle is designed to predict the likelihood of generating a winning SHA-256 hash while skipping computations deemed unlikely to produce a result.
In effect, this has created the potential to double mining rates while keeping energy costs steady, the company said.
Prior lab tests demonstrated this in simulated mining scenarios at the current mining difficulty.
Next, the company is focused on two objectives. The first being the continued development of the technology to perform at higher mining difficulties, while the second is to develop a software-only version that can deployed across mining ‘pools’.
Quantum Blockchain said it plans to file a patent for Method C before the end of 2024.
"Once the new patent application has been filed, we will start to demonstrate the real-time, disruptive application of the AI Oracle generated by Method C to potential key partners and clients,” Gardin added.