logoalt Hacker News

kmeisthax02/19/20251 replyview on HN

They can fundamentally break most asymmetric encryption, which is a good thing iff you want to do things that require forging signatures. Things like jailbreaks Apple can't patch, decryption tools that can break all E2E encryption, being able to easily steal your neighbor's Facebook login at the coffee shop...

Come to think of it, maybe we shouldn't invent quantum computers[0].

[0] Yes, even with the upside of permanently jailbreakable iPhones.


Replies

dvh02/20/2025

No you can't. Largest factored number using shor's algorithm is 21. No other algorithm scales to crypto levels.

show 2 replies