According to a Nature article, Google researchers have found a technology that might make quantum computing feasible in the real world through artificial intelligence.
Researchers from Deepmind described in the report how their latest artificial intelligence system, AlphaQubit, was able to successfully fix recurring mistakes which have a long dogged quantum computers.
“Quantum computers has the possibilities for revolutionizing the discovery of drugs, products layout, and fundamental physical sciences if one succeed in getting them to function accurately,” Google stated in a statement.
Super-powerful Quantum computing devices
Super-powerful computing devices are extremely fragile: even the slightest environmental interference such as heat, vibration, electromagnetic fields, or even cosmic rays can disrupt quantum states, leading to errors and unreliable calculations.
One previously published paper argues that for practical use of quantum computers, the error rate should not exceed one in a trillion operations.
However, new processors are more susceptiblenoiseunlike conventional ones. If we want to make quantum computers reliable, especially at scale, we need to accurately detect and correct these errors,” Google emphasized.
AlphaQubit’s new AI system uses a sophisticated neural network architecture that has demonstrated high accuracy in detecting and correcting quantum errors.
In quantum systems with 17–241 qubits, the solution retained good precision, indicating that the method may scale to the bigger networks required for real-world quantum computing.
AlphaQubit faces significant hurdles to implementation.
The creators assert that although AlphaQubit is very good at detecting mistakes, yet still remains slow enough to fix them in actual time in a superconducting processor.
The researchers focused on optimizing speed, scalability, and integration.
The crypto community is worried about blockchains being hacked by a quantum computer. Fears have been heightened by the “world’s first effective attack” on the Present, Gift-64 and Rectangle algorithms.
The fastest computer in the world
While quantum computers have the potential to take down blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum, the same cannot be said for even the fastest conventional supercomputers.
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have announced that their newest supercomputer, El Capitan, can perform 2.79 quadrillion (a number with 15 zeros) calculations per second, making it the fastest computer in the world. It runs 5.4 million times faster than a standard home PC
The device is designed for complex tasks such as modeling, artificial intelligence development and research. As for concerns about the possibility of hacking blockchains, they are groundless, according to cryptography experts.
“They need to try all possible private keys. For example, if the private key is 256 bits long, an attacker trying to forge your transactions would need to try all possible 256-bit keys,” said Arcium CEO Yannick Schrade.
El Capitan took 10 billion years to do this because of computational asymmetries inherent in the encryption schemes it uses, such as elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), which is used in other blockchains, such as Solana, Ethereum, and Bitcoin.
ECC provides a high level of security, and quantum computing poses a more serious threat to it, Schrade emphasized. It can overcome computational asymmetry.
Other experts expressed a similar position. There are currently no traditional methods for cracking encryption schemes. The threat from new quantum computers is much greater, noted Duncan Jones, head of cybersecurity at Quantinuum. His company is developing quantum computing.
Decentralized network developers need to deploy quantum security technology as quickly as possible to prepare for this risk,” he said.
Quantum Just do it
Quantum computers are still a long way off, and supercomputers are incapable of cracking cryptocurrencies, but it’s too early to relax. Ahmed Banafa, a professor of engineering at San Jose State University, noted that “the blockchain industry is overly confident in its supposed security, overlooking potential vulnerabilities.”
While crypto users acknowledge the potential threat, few platforms have taken measures to protect against such attacks, the expert added.
“Decentralization is a strength, but it also makes it more difficult to push out critical security updates,” Banafa said.
Previously, a number of experts stated that the threat of a quantum attack on cryptocurrencies is exaggerated.