[Cryptography] quantum computers & crypto

[Phillip Hallam-Baker]

On Tue, Oct 26, 2021 at 5:20 PM cherry <cherry at cpal.pw> wrote:

> On 10/22/21 1:51 AM, Rodney Van Meter via cryptography wrote:
> > Gentlefolk,
> >
> > I’m not a regular subscriber to the list, but a colleague asked7
> > that has gone quiet, but I thought folks might be interested
> > anyway. A bit about me and my work at the bottom; ignore the
> > bio bits if you prefer, but disclaimers apply. I’ll also include
> > a dump of URLs, mostly but not entirely to my stuff, which you can
> > read or ignore as you see fit.
> >
> > I enjoyed the thread with John, Henry, Phillip and a couple of
> > others. Most of what was said I think is pretty accurate.
> >
> > A few points (my apologies for being windy here):
> >
> > As noted, quantum computers are still embryonic, but they are
> > getting better at a pretty good clip.
>
> About thirty years ago, from memory, they factored the number
> fifteen.  Have they factored the number twenty one yet?
>

They have factored fifteen with fewer and fewer gates though.

But as someone pointed out, the optimization that allows Shor's algorithm
to be implemented in such a small number of gates is actually using
information that, if known for a composite number, permits it to be
factored in linear time. so you can do Shor's algorithm in fewer gates but
that is no longer a factoring solution...


As with Fusion and Modular Fission Reactors, this is important work that
definitely needs academia and industry to work on it. But it is
experimental physics research, basic research, not work that should be
judged on a five or even a ten year time horizon.
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