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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

#51

Post by bilsbie »

ransom1538 wrote: post #25
lisper wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wait? Just go read the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09526-6 In the last sentence of the abstract you will find: "These results ... indicate a viable path to practical quantum advantage." And in the conclusions: "Although the random circuits used in the dynamic learning demonstration remain a toy model for Hamiltonians that are of practical relevance, the scheme is readily applicable to real p…

SO... BTC goes to zero?

I don’t see why bitcoin wouldn’t update its software in such a case. The majority of minors just need to agree. But why wouldn’t they if the alternative is going to zero?

Re: Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

#52

Post by OsrsNeedsf2P »

LarsDu88 wrote: post #38
ransom1538 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SO... BTC goes to zero?

If quantum computers crack digital crytography, traditional bank account goes to zero too because regular 'ol databases also use crytography techniques for communication.

Let's say I give you a function you can call to crack any RSA key. How are you hacking banks?

Re: Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

#53

Post by streptomycin »

i-con wrote: post #34

Notice how they say "quantum advantage" not "supremacy" and "a (big) step toward real-world applications". So actually just another step as always. And I'm left to doubt if the classic algorithm used for comparison was properly optimised.

FWIW "quantum advantage" and "quantum supremacy" are synonyms, some people just prefer the former because the latter reminds them of "white supremacy" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_supremacy#Criticism_of...

Re: Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

#54

Post by jonathanlydall »

bilsbie wrote: post #51
ransom1538 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SO... BTC goes to zero?

I don’t see why bitcoin wouldn’t update its software in such a case. The majority of minors just need to agree. But why wouldn’t they if the alternative is going to zero?

Sir Alexander Dane: MINERS, not MINORS.

Re: Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

#55

Post by andrewstuart2 »

bilsbie wrote: post #51
ransom1538 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SO... BTC goes to zero?

I don’t see why bitcoin wouldn’t update its software in such a case. The majority of minors just need to agree. But why wouldn’t they if the alternative is going to zero?

I'll tell you right now, no way my kids would agree until they're at least adults. They don't even know what asymmetric cryptography is.

Re: Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

#56

Post by SAI_Peregrinus »

wcoenen wrote: post #47
LarsDu88 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If quantum computers crack digital crytography, traditional bank account goes to zero too because regular 'ol databases also use crytography techniques for communication.

If all else fails, banks can generate terabytes of random one-time pad bytes, and then physically transport those on tape to other banks to set up provably secure communication channels that still go over the internet. It would be a pain to manage but it would be safe from quantum computing.

They could also use pre-shared keys with symmetric cryptography. AES-256-GCM is secure against quantum attack, no need to bother with one-time pads.

Re: Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

#57

Post by qnleigh »

fooker wrote: post #12

Can someone explain if this is still the RCS problem or a similar one? My impression was that every problem a quantum computer solves in practice right now is basically reducible from 'simulate a quantum computer'

This is quite different from their previous random circuit sampling (RCS) experiments that have made headlines a few times in the past. The key difference from an applied standpoint is that the output of RCS is a random bitstring which is different every time you run the algorithm. These bitstrings are not reproducible, and also not particularly interesting, except for the fact that only a quantum computer can generate them efficiently.

The new experiment generates the same result every time you run it (after a small amount of averaging). It also involves running a much more structured circuit (as opposed to a random circuit), so all-in-all, the result is much more 'under control.'

As a cherry on top, the output has some connection to molecular spectroscopy. It still isn't that useful at this scale, but it is much more like the kind of thing you would hope to use a quantum computer for someday (and certainly more useful than generating random bitstrings).

Re: Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

#58

Post by i-con »

streptomycin wrote: post #53
i-con wrote: post #34

Notice how they say "quantum advantage" not "supremacy" and "a (big) step toward real-world applications". So actually just another step as always. And I'm left to doubt if the classic algorithm used for comparison was properly optimised.

FWIW "quantum advantage" and "quantum supremacy" are synonyms, some people just prefer the former because the latter reminds them of "white supremacy" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_supremacy#Criticism_of...

Good point, I had no idea. I actually thought they just restrained themselves this time :D

Re: Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

#59

Post by cyberpunk »

deliriumchn wrote: post #30
ransom1538 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SO... BTC goes to zero?

no, not really, PQC is already being discussed in pretty much every relevant crypto thing for couple years alearady and there are multiple PQC algos ready to protect important data in banking etc as well

I don’t really understand the threat to banking. Let’s say you crack the encryption key used in my bank between a java payment processing system and a database server. You can’t just inject transactions or something. Is the threat that internal network traffic could be read? Transactions all go to clearing houses anyway. Is it to protect browser->webapp style banking? those all use ec by now anyway, and even if they don’t how do you mitm this traffic?

Where is the exact threat?

Re: Willow quantum chip demonstrates verifiable quantum advantage on hardware

#60

Post by AndrewStephens »

lisper wrote: post #21
Imnimo wrote: post #9

As with any quantum computing news, I will wait for Scott Aaronson to tell me what to think about this.

Why wait? Just go read the paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09526-6 In the last sentence of the abstract you will find: "These results ... indicate a viable path to practical quantum advantage." And in the conclusions: "Although the random circuits used in the dynamic learning demonstration remain a toy model for Hamiltonians that are of practical relevance, the scheme is readily applicable to real p…

> "These results ... indicate a viable path to practical quantum advantage"

I'll add this to my list of useful phrases.

Q: Hey AndrewStephens, you promised that task would be completed two days ago. Can you finish it today?

A: Results indicate a viable path to success.

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