A $15m computer that uses "quantum physics" effects to boost its speed

[saint-tropez]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22554494#TWEET758009

i wonder if this monster can handle a 51% bitcoin attack?

[jackjack]

Effectively, it can try all possible solutions at the same time and then select the best.

Wow. Is it even possible to be any wronger?

[redwine77]

Hmm, I don't really understand this computer, I suppose I'll wait a few years and see if any new news comes on this and things become clearer, lol.

[Kluge]

Here's the referenced paper with performance data. Way over my head.   http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/business/quantum-study.pdf

[reich]

wow, this is kinda scary :0

[Dasneko]

They are probably based on normal processors and thus they will suffer from the same limitations. That beast will probably mine about as fast as a few good graphics cards at most.

[reich]

Whos going to have the money to spend 15 mill on a computer?

[hyoshi]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22554494#TWEET758009

i wonder if this monster can handle a 51% bitcoin attack?

I'm sure it can

[hyoshi]

Whos going to have the money to spend 15 mill on a computer?

If someone paid 15 million for it, and did run a 51% attack - bitcion would be worthless.

[Theraty]

What Th/s are we talking here? Group buy?     

[hyoshi]

Whos going to have the money to spend 15 mill on a computer?

Would the United States Government spend 15 million to ruin Bitcoin?  yes, yes they would

[hyoshi]

They are probably based on normal processors and thus they will suffer from the same limitations. That beast will probably mine about as fast as a few good graphics cards at most.

Quantum computer's would destroy bitcoin and possibly be able to decrypt public address hashes theoretically - if indeed this is a quantum computer.

[jackjack]

I read ultra quickly and I understood it's not what is called a "quantum computer". It just uses a processor that uses quantum effects in its transistors.

[subvolatill]

not sure

[Phant727]

not sure

me too

[Gabi]

Yes and no. Together 

[hashkey]

What would happen if this computer was used to generate all the private keys of all possible bitcoin address via bruteforce?

[kmarinas86]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22554494

Quantum computing is based around exploiting the strange behaviour of matter at quantum scales.

Most work on this type of computing has focused on building quantum logic gates similar to the gate devices at the basis of conventional computing.

But physicists have repeatedly found that the problem with a gate-based approach is keeping the quantum bits, or qubits (the basic units of quantum information), in their quantum state.

"You get drop out… decoherence, where the qubits lapse into being simple 1s and 0s instead of the entangled quantum states you need. Errors creep in," says Prof Alan Woodward of Surrey University.
One gate opens...

Instead, D-Wave Systems has been focused on building machines that exploit a technique called quantum annealing - a way of distilling the optimal mathematical solutions from all the possibilities.
Geordie Rose, D-Wave Geordie Rose believes others have taken the wrong approach to quantum computing

Annealing is made possible by physics effect known as quantum tunnelling, which can endow each qubit with an awareness of every other one.

"The gate model... is the single worst thing that ever happened to quantum computing", Geordie Rose, chief technology officer for D-Wave, told BBC Radio 4's Material World programme.

"And when we look back 20 years from now, at the history of this field, we'll wonder why anyone ever thought that was a good idea."

Dr Rose's approach entails a completely different way of posing your question, and it only works for certain questions.

Bam.

[ptereh]

that's the thing with quantum computers. No encryption is safe

[Dasneko]

They are probably based on normal processors and thus they will suffer from the same limitations. That beast will probably mine about as fast as a few good graphics cards at most.

Quantum computer's would destroy bitcoin and possibly be able to decrypt public address hashes theoretically - if indeed this is a quantum computer.

This is not a quantum computer only a processor that is said to exploit a quantum phenomena. They claim its about 3000 times faster then a normal processor but if you add in the normal limitations of the processor it puts it well inside our ballpark.