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RE: Bitcoin Security Overview & Quantum Computers
Great write-up, thanks for expanding on this point from your previous article. Now I finally know a compelling reason to avoid re-using Bitcoin addresses, always kind of wondered what the big deal was about that. I wonder how far away quantum computers are from actually becoming practical? You're making me start to feel a bit paranoid. ;-)
I am not sure if they are going to build one that is practical, because it would be pretty hard to do it.
But even if they do, probably not in the next 15 years to give you are rough estimation.
My gut feeling is also that it's quite a long ways off. Will be quite exciting and revolutionary when it happens though! Been a while since we've seen a radical paradigm shift in computing technology.
Mainframes -> desktop PCs -> laptops -> tablets -> quantum computers?
I dont think tablets are an evolution, besides qc is not good for personal computing.
As I told above, a QC doesnt speed up calculations, it just finds efficient ways to do them, so a QC would be horrible for browsing and watching videos on internet like what most people do.
(Not to mention it needs liquid nitrogen to cool it down 24/7, so how are you going to miniaturize that?)
I can hardly imagine QC being used by mainstream people.
I see. Well, I bet early users of massive mainframe systems in the previous century never imagined computers would become a household technology either. Who knows how things will change in 20 or 30 years?
Regarding tablets, you could make a case either way. Maybe it's more accurate to call them a supplementary technology. But I suspect the average non-techie person (like my wife) uses some tablet device (iPad, smartphone) a lot more frequently than the desktop PC gathering dust on their desk. So in that sense, tablets are an evolution in terms of market share and how much they have proliferated into mainstream society & culture.
There will always be a place for the venerable old desktop, however. I personally can't imagine how I would survive without one.
Yes I agree, miniaturized gadgets probably appeal more to women, whereas men like traditional old school stuff. I personally like laptops and PC's, but I dont own a tablet, nor do I want to, I see no use in them.
As for a quantum PC, I highly doubt it, this is not a question of efficiency, but a question of physical limits. A QC requires too much energy just to maintain the quantum state, not to mention the calculation part itself. I think it will only be used for large scale research projects, and by governments, but hardly by mainstream.
I think most of those documentary films are wishful thinking, they like to assume things in the future that just wont be true.
But who knows maybe I'm wrong.