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Google claims it has designed a machine that needs only 200 seconds to solve a problem that would take the worlds fastest supercomputer 10,000 years to figure out.

The speed achieved by the computer represents a breakthrough called quantum supremacy, according to a blog post from the company and an accompanying article in the scientific journal Nature.

The results announced Wednesday herald the rise of quantum computers, which can store and process much more information than their classical cousins by tapping into the powerful forces contained in the field of physics known as quantum mechanics.

One big difference: Normal computers use data that exist in only one state at a time a one, or a zero. Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which can simultaneously be any combination of zero and one. The difference means much faster processing speeds.

Google (GOOGL) will now try to build a fault-tolerant quantum computer as quickly as possible. The company sees applications in designing lightweight batteries for cars and airplanes, as well as new medicines.

Achieving the necessary computational capabilities will still require years of hard engineering and scientific work. But we see a path clearly now, and were eager to move ahead, it said in the post.

PHOTO: Google

Google CEO Sundar Pichai with the company's quantum computer.

The speed experiment devised by Google was criticized by some experts and rival companies after the results leaked online ahead of their official publication date.

IBM (IBM) said in a blog post Monday that Google had overestimated the difficulty of the computing task. Instead of 10,000 years, IBM (IBM) argued the problem could be solved by a classical computer in just 2.5 days.

We urge the community to treat claims that, for the first time, a quantum computer did something that a classical computer cannot with a large dose of skepticism, IBM said.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai defended the companys claim in an interview with MIT Technology Review published Wednesday, comparing it to the Wright brothers attempts at flight.

The first plane flew only for 12 seconds, and so there is no practical application of that, said Pichai. But it showed the possibility that a plane could fly.

China is considered a leader in the development of quantum computing, which could have significant military applications. The United States is trying to catch up, sparking fears of a quantum arms race.

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Quantum supremacy: Google says its computer did a 10,000 ...

Millions without power; stores and banks shut down; vital services running on emergency generators if at all; lines of hapless people waiting for food and water. The experience that the state of Texas underwent this February will be only a preview of what we would all face in the event of a major cyberattack on our ever-vulnerable energy grid.

In the case of an attack by a future quantum computer, with its unprecedented power to decrypt existing encryption systems, the shutdown could be the most catastrophic disaster our country has ever experienced. Using data supplied by the global econometrics firm Oxford Economics, our researchers at Hudson Institutes Quantum Alliance Initiative have been working on a quantitative study of a future quantum cyberattack on the grid.Our preliminary data shows that protection of our power networks, needs to be an urgent national priority.

Experts have been warning us for years about how vulnerable the national power grid is to attacks by malicious actors like Russia, China, and Iran. The Department of Energy has a major task force, the North American Energy Resiliency Model (NAERM), looking into how to protect our energy grid from natural disasters but also terrorism and cyber assaults.

But a quantum computer attack would be far more protracted and far worse in its effects.Indeed, the smarter the grid is, with more supervision and control by computers, the more vulnerable it would be.

This is because a large-scale quantum computer in the future will be able to break into any encryption system currently protecting the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition computers that oversee the power grid.The structural design of a standard SCADA industrial control system relies on Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). These are the microprocessors that communicate and interact with field devices such as valves, pumps, and Human Machine Interface (HMI) software application that presents information to an operator or user about the state of an on-going process.That communication data is then routed from the processors to the SCADA computers, where the software displays and interprets the data allowing for operators to analyze and react to system events.

The danger is that a quantum computer will be able to gain access to these major nerve centers of the grid as if the attacker were a bona fide operator.This will allow the attacker to spread malware undetected throughout the grid, which will severely hinder response and recovery for weeks or months.

The notion of resilience in the nations power grid becomes obsolete.And instead of triggering a complete shutdown, a quantum intrusion can lead to sudden inexplicable power losses and sudden power surges that can melt down transformers and render entire power plants inoperable.

In short, the damage will be similar to that of an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) attack terrorism experts have feared for yearsbut stealthier, more unpredictable, and more protracted.

Even if the nations nuclear power plants are insulated from such an attack, the economic costs would be catastrophic.

How bad could the damage be?Our study indicates the direct economic cost of this quantum-led electricity outage would be over $8.6 trillion, with a disruptive impact extending over six fiscal quarters. Everything from financial markets to manufacturing and healthcare would be disrupted, for weeks or even months. Looking at the cost in terms of GDP at Risk or the integrated difference between the forecasted GDP growth for the economy and the estimations for GDP growth under the attack scenario, we have found that the total economic loss could extend over eight years or more at a cost of more than $20 trillion-roughly equivalent to the loss of an entire years output for the U.S. economy.

These numbers do not include the impact on Canadas economy, which is part of the North American Power Grid, or the global impact of a U.S. economy in a powerless free fall. Ironically, if Texas ignores the advice of Bill Gates and others that it join the national grid, it could be the one part of the country to emerge from such a disaster relatively unscathed.

What are the steps necessary to avoid such a scenario, and the devastating economic loss such an attack would entail?

First, we need to incentivize power companies to speed up protections for SCADA systems against conventional cyberattacks on the grid as well as future quantum ones. This means moving on deploying post-quantum cryptography, i.e. encryption based on algorithms that will withstand quantum intrusion, and quantum cryptography, i.e. encryption using quantum random number generation for its keys, to secure networks from hackers.

Second, we need to develop a national strategic reserve of Large Power Transformers (LPTs) that can be deployed in case of cyberattacks that specifically target LPTs, the essential sinews of the North American Power Grid.

Third, we need closer cooperation with Canada in working together on that grid, in order to mitigate the risks of attackwhether conventional today or quantum-based tomorrowas well as the damage done by natural disasters including climate change.

In the end, avoiding a Texas-like national shutdown of our power grid will be a matter of spending billions to offset the risk of losing trillions.Thats not a bad bargain when our entire economy, and economies around the world, are at risk.

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Texas Warned Us What Quantum Computers Will Do To The Power Grid - Forbes

This photo shows IBM Corp.'s quantum computer that will be installed at Kawasaki Business Incubation Center in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture. (Photo courtesy of IBM Japan Ltd.)

TOKYO -- Japan will be getting its first leading-edge quantum computer this year.

IBM Japan Ltd. announced on March 23 that the computer made by its U.S. parent IBM Corp. will be installed at Kawasaki Business Incubation Center (KBIC) in the city of Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, just south of Tokyo. It will be in place within a few months, and will be in operation by the end of the year. The University of Tokyo, which holds exclusive access rights, will seek to put the machine to practical tasks in cooperation with companies through a dedicated consortium.

Quantum computers use quanta -- such as light -- which have the characteristics of both waves and particles, and can make multiple calculations simultaneously using a completely different process from conventional computers. It is expected to be used for purposes including developing new drugs and materials, and managing assets. Japan's first machine will be a "gate-model quantum computer," which theoretically has very broad applications. IBM and Google LLC are both developing this type of computer.

The University of Tokyo signed a partnership with IBM Japan in December 2019, and established the Quantum Innovation Initiative Consortium in July 2020 to turn quantum computers to practical use through the cooperation of government, industry and academia. The two universities and 12 companies that make up the consortium include Keio University, Toshiba Corp., Mitsubishi Chemical Holding Corp. and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. The consortium members will be able to access the quantum computer in Kawasaki through cloud technology.

IBM Corp. currently has more than 30 quantum computers in New York, and at least 140 companies and universities around the world access them through cloud technology. Many members of the Japanese consortium have also used the New York machines, but they are forced to compete for time on the systems with people around the world, limiting access periods. When the quantum computer has been installed in Japan, the consortium members will be able to use it for their research for longer stretches.

Hiroaki Aihara, the consortium's project leader and vice president of the University of Tokyo, said, "It's overwhelmingly advantageous to be able to get a lot of time on a cutting-edge computer. We want to develop quantum computer apps through industry-academia cooperation and accelerate the technology's use." Outside Japan, another quantum computer is set to enter operation in Germany in 2021.

KBIC is a research and development office space equipped with labs for start-ups. IBM Japan also uses the facility as a research center.

(Japanese original by Mayumi Nobuta, Science & Environment News Department)

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Japan's first leading-edge quantum computer to be installed this year - The Mainichi - The Mainichi

A Quantum physicist is revealing that while quantum computers pose no risk to Bitcoin mining, they threaten the algorithms that keep Bitcoin and the internet secure.

In a recent video, Anastasia Marchenkova argues Bitcoin has a built-in design that protects it against entities using quantum algorithms to mine BTC at a rapid rate.

Lets say one day we actually did discover a quantum algorithm that could solve this faster. Bitcoin is designed to adjust the difficulty if we mine blocks too fast. So even if we found this quantum algorithm, the difficulty would just get harder.

However, the quantum physicist warns that quantum computing poses a serious risk to cryptographic algorithms which keep cryptocurrencies and the internet at large secure.

Theres two common cryptosystems RSA and elliptic curve encryption and these are affected by quantum computers. When youre online, information that you send is encrypted, often with these two. Both of these are vulnerable to attacks by quantum computers which means a large enough quantum computer will be a problem for anyone online

There actually is a quantum algorithm to break RSA and elliptic curve encryption. Bitcoin does use elliptic curve encryption (ECC) to generate the public key, which is created from the private key which authorizes transactions

That means that someone with a large enough and coherent enough quantum computer, with coherence meaning the length of time the quantum information can be stored, can actually get your private key from your public key and thats a very serious problem That private key can then be used to authorize transactions that the owner doesnt want to have happen. So as quantum computers become better and better, the security of RSA and elliptic curve is no longer effective.

Crypto sleuths continue to track the advancement of quantum machines. They have the capability to crack complex mathematical problems using quantum bits, or quibits, which can maintain a superimposition by being in two states at the same time.

While the future of cryptocurrencies may be threatened, Marchenkova says digital assets can adopt developments that can effectively resist quantum-based attacks.

So well need to pick an algorithm that can actually stand up to quantum attacks. We call this post-quantum cryptography which are classical algorithms not based on quantum principles that can stand up to quantum computing attacks. One of the current leading candidates is lattice-based cryptography

Another approach is using asymmetric cryptography like AES (advanced encryption standard) which is weakened by quantum computers but not broken in such a manner like RSA and elliptic curve

There are also other coins already using hash-based cryptography. And so far, like I mentioned, hash-based cryptosystems actually resist quantum computing attacks. We dont know if thats going to hold true forever but so far that seems to be the case.

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Will Quantum Computers Break Bitcoin and the Internet? Heres the Outlook From Quantum Physicist Anastasia Marchenkova - The Daily Hodl

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Quantum computers really do represent the future generation of computing. Cloud-based quantum computing is tougher to drag off than AI, therefore the ramp-up is going to be slower, and therefore the learning curve vessel attributable to the rather nebulous science behind it, a sensible, operating quantum computer remains a flight of fancy. Bits are the elemental computing units, however, they will store only two values 0 and 1. Developers use quantum computing to encrypt issues as qubits, that work out multiple mixtures of variables promptly instead of exploring every possibility discretely. The deployment of quantum circuits and therefore the support systems necessary for their operation could be an expensive and troublesome process. Among the scope of the analysis, firms that already use these systems modify cloud-based quantum computing via the platforms they build.

Many startups and technology giants, together with Microsoft, IBM, and Google, acknowledge the worth of creating progress during this field, as this is often so successive major step in technology and computing. Quantum computers area unit lightning-fast compared to a typical Windows 10 computer or a macOS computer that makes them even quicker than the foremost powerful supercomputers we have these days. Once users area unit allowed to access quantum physics-powered computers via the web, then its quantum computing within the cloud.

Rigetti computing could be a startup that has developed a quantum processor thats in operation and Computing 128 qubits. They recently declared a Quantum Cloud Service, that developed on its existing quantum computing within the Cloud programming toolkit. This service can bring each ancient and quantum computer along on one cloud platform to assist users to build applications exploitation the ability of qubit technology.

Bill Gates~ It isnt clear when it will work or become mainstream. There is a chance that within 610 years that cloud computing will offer super-computation by using quantum. It could help use solve some very important science problems including materials and catalyst design.

It will create a distinction in several areas with enhancements in implementation and error correction. This new technology can reach a useful purpose with the participation of a lot of individuals and their collaboration. Cloud-based quantum computing offers an immediate interface to quantum circuits and quantum chips sanctioning final testing of quantum algorithms and provides how that allows individuals to create enhancements in quantum computing. Businesses and other domains will apply by exploitation QC on the cloud and dont ought to look forward to quantum computing technology being mature and widespread.

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What is cloud-based quantum computing and How does it work? - Medium