Google Quantum AI said on Thursday it cut errors about 40-fold on its Willow chip using a technique called magic state cultivation, producing magic states at 99.99% fidelity. The work is published in Science.

For anyone holding crypto, the 40-fold figure is not the part that matters most. The cost of the resource Google just got better at making is.

Magic states are single-use, and Google says some estimates put up to 95% of a quantum computer’s entire capacity into producing them, leaving little room for actual computing. Google calls this one of quantum computing’s most severe resource bottlenecks, and says the Willow run is the first demonstration of a practical fix. Cheaper magic states do not break Bitcoin on their own, but they are…