<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:large">Quantum computer expert</span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:large"> </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:large">Scott Aaronson</span><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:large"> has always been a vocal critic of the excessive hype surrounding his subject, but just a few days ago he wrote this: </span></div><div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4"><span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></span></font></div><div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><b><span class="gmail_default">"I</span> now think it’s a live possibility that we’ll have a fault-tolerant quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm before the next US presidential election. And I say that not only because of the possibility of the next US presidential election getting cancelled, or preempted by runaway superintelligence!<span class="gmail_default">"</span></b></font></div><div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif" size="4"><b><br></b></font></div><div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4" face="arial, sans-serif">When we have a quantum computer big enough to run<span class="gmail_default"> Shor's algorithm, bitcoin becomes worthless. </span></font><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:large">Aaronson<span class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"> then says this:</span></span></div><div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><font size="4" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><b><span class="gmail_default">"</span>The two biggest known application areas for QC remain (a) quantum simulation and (b) the breaking of public-key cryptography, just as they were thirty years ago.<span class="gmail_default">"</span></b></font></div><div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4"><span class="gmail_default"><a href="https://scottaaronson.blog/"><font face="tahoma, sans-serif"><b>Quantum Computing, too much to handle</b></font></a><br></span></font></div><div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4"><br></font></div><div style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4" face="tahoma, sans-serif"><span class="gmail_default">John K Clark</span></font></div><br class="gmail-Apple-interchange-newline"></div></div>