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Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

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Re: Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

#211

Post by twothreeone »

qnleigh wrote: post #203
andy_ppp wrote: post #178

I would be quite worried about advances in quantum computers if I had any Bitcoin after watching this DEFCON talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkVYJx1iLNs

The quantum algorithm that would break certain kinds of public key cryptography schemes (not even the core part of Bitcoin blockchains, which are not vulnerable to quantum computers) will take days to weeks to break a single key [0]. This is another reason why we will have plenty of warning before quantum computing causes any major disruptions to daily life. What I would start worrying about is the security of things…

Usually, the crypto should have Forward Secrecy already even without being PQ-safe (e.g., via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Ratchet_Algorithm) so in practice the attacker would need to break many successive session keys - which rotates every time a new message is sent.

Re: Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

#212

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

acdha wrote: post #191
vayup wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quantum is a known threat. There is enough time to fix it. Folks are working on the fixes. Cryptocurrencies would be the last thing I worry about w.r.t Quantum crypto attacks. Everything would be broken. Think banks, brokerage accounts, email, text messages - everything.

I think that’s backwards: most of the stuff you mentioned is using TLS and can switch to post-quantum algorithms with a config change, and do so incrementally with no user-visible impact - e.g. right now I’m already using PQC for many sites and about half of the traffic Cloudflare sees is using PQC: https://radar.cloudflare.com/adoption-and-usage In contrast, cryptocurrencies have to upgrade the entire network all at…

I can't remember which chain it was but I'm sure I've seen stats on in-progress rollouts of protocol changes where the network took something like weeks or months to all get upgraded to the new version. You can design for tolerating both for a time.

Re: Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

#214

Post by 15155 »

gingerceo wrote: post #204
krater23 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think twice. Everyone who hosts the blockchain would decide to stop because he invested in crypto, at least with some hardware costs. Beside of the small group of people that owns a quantum computer. I don't expect that this group is >50% of the people that hosts the blockchain.

You don't need >50% of bad actors to compromise the blockchain, but rather >50% of the total hashing power. This could very well be achievable by a small group of people with QC at some point.

How does QC aid SHA256 hash throughput?

Re: Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

#215

Post by laserbeam »

It’s really hard to parse both the announcement (too much hyperbola) and the article (too technical), however as I understand it, this is what quantum computing should be good at. Not at making classical algorithms faster, but at simulating quantum physics experiments. This is a good direction and I find it more plausible than “we factored numbers faster”.

This SHOULD be the main application of the tech. It’s hard to tell if it is because authors can’t do science communication, they can apparently only do sales.

Re: Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

#217

Post by germandiago »

vayup wrote: post #183
andy_ppp wrote: post #178

I would be quite worried about advances in quantum computers if I had any Bitcoin after watching this DEFCON talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkVYJx1iLNs

Quantum is a known threat. There is enough time to fix it. Folks are working on the fixes. Cryptocurrencies would be the last thing I worry about w.r.t Quantum crypto attacks. Everything would be broken. Think banks, brokerage accounts, email, text messages - everything.

Like everything else that is a new invention, it can be a threat.

Anyways I am against stopping evolution on those grounds. What we need to do is learn and fix as you say. Not regulation and forbid. :)

Re: Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

#218

Post by irjustin »

vayup wrote: post #183
andy_ppp wrote: post #178

I would be quite worried about advances in quantum computers if I had any Bitcoin after watching this DEFCON talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkVYJx1iLNs

Quantum is a known threat. There is enough time to fix it. Folks are working on the fixes. Cryptocurrencies would be the last thing I worry about w.r.t Quantum crypto attacks. Everything would be broken. Think banks, brokerage accounts, email, text messages - everything.

> Everything would be broken. Think banks, brokerage accounts, email, text messages - everything.

Wonder if this would become the next "nuclear proliferation".

Since it's so hard to manufacture it gets controlled at state level and then becomes a technology that the general public are never allowed to have.

Re: Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

#219

Post by gsf_emergency_4 »

Why use the subtext? In the peer review (pp30-31), the authors

>acknowledge [that] Hamiltonian learning of an actual physical system has not been performed [and] have therefore further de-emphasized the quantum advantage claim in the revised manuscript

https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs415...

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