Quote from: challen on April 01, 2014, 08:42:27 PM

Bitcoin has been a great social experiment thus far, but there have been recent developments in quantum computing. Speculatively speaking, what effect might this have on bitcoin and the next generation of cryptocurrencies?

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/quantum-computing-research-may-back-controversial-company/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

"While the controversy has gone on for years, it may reach an end within a year or two. Mr. Williams said that in April, D-Wave will be conducting experiments with a machine managing over 1,000 qubits, about twice the number currently inside its best machine.

A 2,000-qubit machine is scheduled for the end of the year, and will be ready for experiments within a few months after that. If D-Wave can rapidly solve the kind of large problems a machine like that is expected to, that would perhaps be the most persuasive evidence possible that we have entered a new computing era."

They can't run Shor's algorithm. neither the prime one nor the modified version for elliptic curves.