The Quantum Computer zoom to the qubit · then to Q-Day
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42-apps presents

The Quantum Computer

A working machine you can fly, a qubit you can dive into, and the whole race —
the machines, the roadmap, the cryptography cliff, and Bitcoin's countdown.

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01 A short history of the impossible

From a 1980 thought experiment to machines that beat error correction. Filter the timeline, then watch the qubit count climb.

The qubit count, over time

log scale · physical qubits, headline machines

02 The machines, and what they can do

Today's quantum computers run on five very different kinds of qubit. More qubits isn't better — fidelity is. Here's the whole field.

Qubits vs. fidelity

bubble size = qubits · the top-right corner is where the magic is

03 The climb to a useful machine

Raw qubits are noisy. The real race is error correction — bundling thousands of physical qubits into a few reliable logical ones. Here are the roadmaps, the projection, and the walls in the way.

Logical qubits — the published roadmaps

log scale · vendor targets, dashed where projected

The walls in the way

04 Q-Day — is our encryption ready?

A big enough quantum computer breaks the public-key crypto behind almost all secure traffic. The fix (post-quantum cryptography) is standardised and rolling out — but unevenly. "Harvest now, decrypt later" means the clock already started.

Post-quantum adoption, projected

share of secured traffic using PQC key exchange

Is it on yet? — major systems

The standards that make it possible

05 Quantum vs. Bitcoin

Bitcoin's signatures use the same elliptic-curve crypto a quantum computer could break. Two lines are racing: quantum capability rising, and Bitcoin's defences scrambling. Whoever crosses first decides whether ~$ trillions are safe.

The crossover

quantum power needed to break a key vs. expected machine size · log scale

How much Bitcoin is exposed

What Bitcoin must do