One successful quantum computer and all digital "security" as we know it ceases to exist.
People can argue till they are blue in the face over when and where it will happen, but once it does all crypto is as valuable as a 1990s CD key. The industry heads are all saying we are less than 10 years away, quantum computing is essentially functional, it's a matter of stability and scale before an actual "chip" is attached to an interface and the most complex mathematical problems on earth are thrown at it to see what it can do.
It's a literal expiration date for crypto and there is no plan, nor can there even be a plan, to fix or update it. Governments and banks can roll out new currency to replace the old if it becomes a risk for them, but decentralized crypto will simply become worthless. It will of course crash long before it's hacked as news of the computer and it's capabilities will be something of a shot heard round the cyber world.
Anyone who doesn't think this is going to happen, or simply chooses to ignore it, is only out to pump and dump a speculative currency off the backs of their followers.
One successful quantum computer and all digital "security" as we know it ceases to exist.
Indeed it does, the issue is that successful quantum computer [for solving existing digital "security"] is always 10 years away, because guess what, size of keys for encryption is not staying in place, and growing qubit count of quantum computer is a task significantly trickier than slapping larger register on a CPU (which is not trivial task either).
Governments and banks can roll out new currency to replace the old if it becomes a risk for them
That's identical to saying existing currency will become scrap paper, not any different from crypto.
It appears that quantum computing is growing slowly and predictably. Companies already have basic quantum computers solving simple problems. They're not suddenly going to roll out a super-fast quantum computer that can break all encryption overnight, shocking the world.* As we see gains in the field, classical encryption will continue to grow in complexity, and eventually the ciphers will themselves require quantum computers to work.
(*Unless it does, but then by definition it's not predictable.)
One successful quantum computer and all digital "security" as we know it ceases to exist.
People can argue till they are blue in the face over when and where it will happen, but once it does all crypto is as valuable as a 1990s CD key. The industry heads are all saying we are less than 10 years away, quantum computing is essentially functional, it's a matter of stability and scale before an actual "chip" is attached to an interface and the most complex mathematical problems on earth are thrown at it to see what it can do.
It's a literal expiration date for crypto and there is no plan, nor can there even be a plan, to fix or update it. Governments and banks can roll out new currency to replace the old if it becomes a risk for them, but decentralized crypto will simply become worthless. It will of course crash long before it's hacked as news of the computer and it's capabilities will be something of a shot heard round the cyber world.
Anyone who doesn't think this is going to happen, or simply chooses to ignore it, is only out to pump and dump a speculative currency off the backs of their followers.
Indeed it does, the issue is that successful quantum computer [for solving existing digital "security"] is always 10 years away, because guess what, size of keys for encryption is not staying in place, and growing qubit count of quantum computer is a task significantly trickier than slapping larger register on a CPU (which is not trivial task either).
That's identical to saying existing currency will become scrap paper, not any different from crypto.
It appears that quantum computing is growing slowly and predictably. Companies already have basic quantum computers solving simple problems. They're not suddenly going to roll out a super-fast quantum computer that can break all encryption overnight, shocking the world.* As we see gains in the field, classical encryption will continue to grow in complexity, and eventually the ciphers will themselves require quantum computers to work.
(*Unless it does, but then by definition it's not predictable.)