Google’s Quantum Chip ‘Willow’ Breaks Barriers, Igniting Crypto Security Debates
- Willow can do certain calculations at an incredible speed and fix errors rapidly.
- Theft of user funds might occur quickly and in enormous quantities if computers were able to crack encryption.
A computational problem that would take one of the top supercomputers around ten septillion years to complete may now be solved in less than five minutes, according to Google’s Quantum AI team’s new quantum computing chip.
In a blog post on December 9, Google’s Quantum AI head Hartmut Neven explained that the chip, which is called Willow, can do certain calculations at an incredible speed and fix errors rapidly. According to him, this staggering figure is much older than the cosmos itself and beyond any physics-based timelines.
Neven states that the second significant accomplishment achieved by the team with Willow is the capacity to exponentially decrease error while employing additional qubits. This solves a “key challenge” in quantum error correction that has been studied by experts for over 30 years. The team halved the error rate by using their most recent quantum error correcting advancements. According to him, the error rate was reduced exponentially.
A qubit, short for “quantum bit,” is an essential building block of quantum computing; an increase in the number of qubits allows for more processing capacity. The chance of errors is still increased as the number of qubits grows.
Achieving practical, large-scale usage of the technology becomes challenging when error rates are too high because computing becomes unstable and produces inaccurate results.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai stated on X on December 9 that Willow is a big deal because it’s a step toward the company’s goal of creating a “useful quantum computer” that can help with things like medicine discovery, fusion energy, and battery design.
Impact for Crypto
There has been much anticipation that the crypto sector would reach a tipping point as quantum computer technology advances. Theft of user funds might occur quickly and in enormous quantities if computers were able to crack encryption.
According to Fhenix CEO’s latest post on X, FHE is always ahead of the curve when it comes to cryptography. When asked about potential solutions, Guy Itzhaki, CEO of Fhenix brought up Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), which refers to encryption techniques that are resistant to quantum assaults. Among them, FHE and other forms of lattice-based encryption stand out for their security and flexibility.
1/ Quantum Computing sounds exciting, but not urgent…until it is.
Here’s how FHE is staying one step ahead of the cryptographic curve.
— Guy Itzhaki (@GuyItzh) December 11, 2024
Plus, he elaborated on why Lattice cryptography is the key. A privacy-saving game-changer, it enables calculations on encrypted data without decrypting it. The future of encryption is a combination of quantum resistance and unprecedented usability. Quantum resistance guarantees safety in the long run.
Additional information on how willow moves us closer to a day when conventional cryptography may not be sufficient is shared by the CEO. One should begin implementing quantum-resistant solutions immediately since building on non-PQC infra is like constructing a home on a shaky foundation; eventually, the walls will collapse.
The CEO advised to put money into expanding your knowledge of quantum-resistant encryption. Create ecosystems that prioritize security, privacy, and secrecy. One may assume quantum computing is something that will happen in the far future, but Google’s Willow shows that the future is here now, as per the CEO.
