Quote from: ranochigo on January 19, 2021, 04:46:15 AM

Quote from: PrimeNumber7 on January 19, 2021, 04:04:22 AM

IBM currently allows public access to their quantum computers.

Depends on how you look at it. It consists of 2x 5 qubit processors and a 16 qubit processor. So, not really practical to attack cryptography at all.

My point is that QC tech is currently publicly available. I would anticipate it will continue being publicly available, probably a few generations behind the 'state of the art' technology.

Quote from: ranochigo on January 19, 2021, 04:46:15 AM

Quote from: PrimeNumber7 on January 19, 2021, 04:04:22 AM

A government that does not want their unit of currency debased by bitcoin/cryptocurrency may also have an incentive to use QC to harm the public perception of the safety of using bitcoin.

Comes down to opportunity cost. I don't see quantum computers with that many qubits to be readily available and they would very much rather use it for deciphering sensitive information. Using it to attack Bitcoin won't reap much benefits especially when some BIPs would probably shift it to a quantum resistant algorithm fairly quickly.

Quote from: ranochigo on January 19, 2021, 04:46:15 AM

As to the prior argument, I would say that if there comes a day where quantum computers are powerful enough, the governments will keep it for themselves. Breaking asymmetric cryptography is useful for espionage and mass surveillence, don't think they have any incentives to do so.

I have made similar arguments in the past, and I stand behind those arguments. I don't think this means QC can be ignored though. Once the West and the Communists in the East (most likely the US and Chinese respectively) have QC tech, knows the other side knows they have QC tech, and knows that the other side knows they have QC tech, the incentive to keep the technology under wraps goes away.

If QC technology is used to crack bitcoin private keys, it will probably be too late to move away from EDSCA and confidence in bitcoin security will be lost/damaged. Using QC technology to crack bitcoin private keys will also cause a lot of damage throughout the bitcoin economy, and it has the potential to cause a lot of businesses to go out of business.