Todd Bishop
On October 23, the virtual currency plummeted, and Bitcoin (bitcoin) fell 8.7% to $7,418. This is in addition to Facebook’s virtual currency Libra unfavorable news, as well as Google’s successful production of quantum computers, the realization of “3 minutes and 20 seconds to solve the traditional computer spent 10,000 years of calculations.”
Why is quantum computer the bad news of virtual currency? This requires first knowing how the quantum computer works.
Computer technology has grown by leaps and bounds since 1960, and the hardware of computing is getting smaller and smaller, and the speed is getting faster and faster. From the initial placement of several room-sized vacuum tube computers, today only the box-sized mini Mini Computer, the development of the computer can be described as a thousand miles.
But today, computer technology seems to have reached the physical bottleneck, and humans will soon reach the “end point” of computers under the traditional framework.
Keep shrinking smaller and smaller computers
Today’s computers are made up of different hardware, consisting of each hardware and different chips. The smallest unit of a computer is a transistor that forms a module. The transistor is like a switch, giving the answer to open (1) and off (0). A switch is called Bit. In simple terms, it consists of an infinite number of transistors with control “1” and “0” to form today’s computer.
The size and computing power of a computer depends on the size and number of transistors. Humans have made breakthroughs in the past half century, making the crystals more and more fine, so the computer has become more and more small. A common transistor today is only 14 nanometers in size.
What is the concept of 14 nm? Human red blood cells are about 6 microns in size, and the HIV virus that causes AIDS is about 150 nanometers in size. That is to say, human-built crystals are even smaller than viruses.
The closer the particle size is, the world becomes different.
However, the transistor cannot be reduced indefinitely. Because when the crystal is getting smaller and smaller, the physical properties will change when it gets closer to the particle size. The physics that humans call this microcosm is called “quantum physics.”
In the world of quantum physics, electrons can “walk through the wall” at will and cannot maintain a fixed switch. That is to say, the day when the transistor will be reduced to the limit, to break through this limitation, it is necessary to develop a new computer based on such quantum physics.
There are two possible “superimposed states” at the same time.
But quantum computers are not just about size. Quantum physics can do things that traditional physics can’t do. For example, in the traditional physical world, a bit can only be “0” or “1”, but in the quantum world, a bit can be either “0” or “1” at the same time.
This can be either “0” or “1” at the same time, which we call Superposition. Furthermore, the original bit can only give “one possibility”, but in the qubit, it can give “two possibilities.”
This is a very important change, with 4 bits as an example. 4 bits can give 16 different results, but only give “one possibility”; but in the quantum world, 4 qubits can give 16 kinds. Different results, but “16 possibilities are given at the same time.” This means that quantum bit efficiency is exponentially expanding, and 20 qubits can already store millions of values.
Complex computing efficiency increases
Therefore, in some areas of computing, quantum computers can be performed in an extremely efficient manner. The most classic example is cracking passwords. Traditional computers can only test one set of passwords at a time, but quantum computers can perform multiple sets of password tests at the same time.
If the password lock consists of 4 “0”s and “1”s, if the computer tests a set of answers every second, the traditional 4-bit computer can find the answer at the slowest 16 seconds. But with a 4 qubit computer, it takes only 1 second to find out.
Quantum mass can mine a lot?
And that’s why virtual currency is affected by quantum computers. At present, virtual currency needs to perform complicated calculations through a computer, and it takes a lot of time to “excavate” a currency of a few cents, but this complicated operation may be an instant event for a quantum computer.
Google claims that it takes only 3 minutes and 20 seconds to complete the work that traditional supercomputers take 10,000 years to complete. Although IBM has corrected the super computer for 2.5 days, it has been a revolutionary breakthrough from 2.5 days to 3 minutes and 20 seconds. . With such speed mining, virtual currency collapses at any time.
Of course, no one has ever verified the effectiveness of using quantum computer mining. The cost of building quantum computers is also astronomical. But like the history of computer development, humans have succeeded in developing several room-sized vacuum tube computers into mini-mini computers with a box size today, so quantum computers may be able to be domesticized someday. The beginning of “quantum hegemony” will bring about earth-shaking changes for mankind.
