What Google’s quantum computer means for Bitcoin

A document published—and deleted—by NASA a few days ago revealed that we could soon be entering a new technological era: Google has achieved “quantum supremacy”—supposedly.

According to the Financial Times, Google claims to have successfully built the world’s most powerful quantum computer. What that means, according to Google’s researchers, is that calculations that normally take more than 10,000 years to perform, it’s computer was able to do in about 200 seconds.

Does that mean that we can say goodbye to that sweet cryptography that protects the integrity of Bitcoin and other digital currencies? Probably not.

Here’s why.

For starters, sources at Google told Fortune over the weekend that NASA took down the paper because it might have been published without the proper scientific peer review. A scientific publication needs to be evaluated and studied by a panel of experts before its ready for publication. So, it might not even actually be ready.

But let’s assume it…