More development in quantum computing

Obviously it’s not happening any time soon, but what might this mean for a few years from now I wonder?

Quote:

The beginning of the end for encryption schemes?

New quantum computer, based on five atoms, factors numbers in a scalable way.

(…)

Now, in a paper published today in the journal Science, researchers from MIT and the University of Innsbruck in Austria report that they have designed and built a quantum computer from five atoms in an ion trap. The computer uses laser pulses to carry out Shor’s algorithm on each atom, to correctly factor the number 15. The system is designed in such a way that more atoms and lasers can be added to build a bigger and faster quantum computer, able to factor much larger numbers. The results, they say, represent the first scalable implementation of Shor’s algorithm.

“We show that Shor’s algorithm, the most complex quantum algorithm known to date, is realizable in a way where, yes, all you have to do is go in the lab, apply more technology, and you should be able to make a bigger quantum computer,” says Isaac Chuang, professor of physics and professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. “It might still cost an enormous amount of money to build — you won’t be building a quantum computer and putting it on your desktop anytime soon — but now it’s much more an engineering effort, and not a basic physics question.”

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You posted am article already on this haven’t you :slight_smile:

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Oops, I thought this was more recent and with new information, the article is actually a few days older lol. I must confess I never read the first one I posted in full. I was more curious what people thought about how it would affect safenet at the time.

Having read this one properly I was wondering more how it might affect cryptography and life in general? Are there many possible solutions to the potential quantum challenges, or does the evolution of quantum capacity have a more profound impact and potentially make certain things possible and/or impossible? Or does that all depend on what type of quantum computing evolves?

Forgive my ignorance, but I really don’t know very much about cryptography. I feel like I have no idea how this could affect the future really, not just of safenet, but of everything.

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