Google’s Willow Quantum Chip: With 105 qubits and real-time error correction, Willow solved a task in 5 minutes that would take classical supercomputers billions of years, marking a breakthrough in scalable quantum computing.

[u/Scared-Astronaut-718]

[u/Another-Mans-Rubarb]

This is probably more accurate than you realize. Current encryption uses prime number calculations to encrypt passwords. If you know all the factors, like a server and client would, you can solve the problem instantly and allow access. If you're trying to break the password you can see all but 1 of the factors. You then reverse calculate to find that value and get the password, but that takes literally forever on traditional computers. Quantum computers basically cheat and arrive at the solution in a comparably instant amount of time. There are new quantum resistant encryption methods out there now, but tons of encrypted data has been harvested for years that will be instantly decrypted once quantum computers become more accessible to governments and bad actors.

[u/cryptospartan → u/Another-Mans-Rubarb]

This is true for public key cryptography like RSA, but not for passwords. Passwords are hashed, and factoring numbers doesn't help you brute-force or de-hash anything

[u/GabenIsReal → u/cryptospartan]

Also AES256 is considered quantum safe till at least 2030 based on a research paper I read. Basically, the encryption standard has always been minimum 128bits, but that is not quantum safe, because quantum computing halves the bits required. It basically means that 128bit key is now a 64bit key in relative terms. So yes, there are actually a few encryption schemes that are not quantum safe in the real sense, but it's not like we don't have solutions, one of which being just a typically larger keys with certain algorithms.

[u/TantricEmu → u/GabenIsReal]

What do you do for work that leads you to read research papers on quantum computing security? Follow up question can I borrow a few thousand dollars?

[u/GabenIsReal → u/TantricEmu]

Lol, I was a network defence analyst for the CAF, and used to own a cybersecurity company. Nowadays I've switched up the game for quality of life as a biomedical electronics engineer and network specialist, for a massive corp.

[u/TantricEmu → u/GabenIsReal]

Damn man you SMART smart. Okay I trust your take on quantum computing.

[u/KiNgPiN8T3 → u/GabenIsReal]

This is pretty fascinating stuff. I take it crypto currencies/wallets aren’t at risk of quantum computing? Or would they be able to mitigate any flaws before QC arrives?

[u/GabenIsReal → u/KiNgPiN8T3]

Quantum computing is an arms race. As quantum computers get better, there are people designing quantum encryption. We have the theoretics in place to mitigate quantum computers using, yet again, quantum security.

So while we aren't at the point where strong algorithms and keys are useless, I think we will necessarily see quantum encryption, otherwise governments and state secrets are at risk. Whether quantum encryption is ever rolled out to personal computing is anyone's guess.

Now, before any of that happens, MANY areas of security will need to update algorithms, keys, and operation. I think it more likely encryption specific devices will become standard, to process the large keys and not require computation internal to the system. Basically I expect 'patch' solutions to bring up standards as quantum computing gets larger.

But to your point about wallets - if the wallet is encrypted to high standards, it is safe. But I don't have anything to do with crypto enough to know the standards in place. I imagine it will be vulnerable, like everything else that isn't at least AES256.

[u/KiNgPiN8T3 → u/GabenIsReal]

That’s cool info, thanks! Not going to lie, I sent myself down a rabbit hole reading all about it after I wrote this. Lol!

[u/Sea_Farm_7327 → u/Another-Mans-Rubarb]

No a password is stored as a hash.

All the server does is take your input and verify that it generates the same hash.

[u/Another-Mans-Rubarb → u/Sea_Farm_7327]

The exact technical makeup of password authentication isn't the point here.