A breakthrough that might break the internet

In today’s episode on 6th November 2025, we take a look at how a chip named Willow recently proved that reliable quantum computing is not science fiction anymore, and how this might affect you and me sooner than you think. If you haven't already, get your free, personalized insurance advice ⁠⁠⁠⁠by clicking here⁠⁠⁠.

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  Hello folks, you're tuned into Mint Charts Daily. In today's episode, we take a look at how a chip named Willow recently proved that reliable quantum computing is not science fiction anymore and how this might affect you and me sooner than you think.

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  Before we begin, here's a quick word from team Ditto. Life can be unpredictable and if the main earner is not around, the bills won't stop. That's why term insurance is so important. It gives your family a fixed payout so they can cover school fees, EMIs and daily expenses without stress. If you buy it early, you can get a one crore cover for as little as thousand rupees a month and the premium stays the same for your entire policy term. That's real peace of mind at a very small cost. And if you're not sure which plan is right for you, book a free call with Ditto. No spam, just honest guidance. And we're trusted by over 8 lakh people for their health and term insurance needs. Now, back to the story. It's believed that hackers around the world are quietly intercepting and hoarding vast

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  volumes of encrypted data, including your biometrics and bank account details, to top-secret research by governments and labs. However, they can't open these files. At least not today. But within the next few years, they may have a reliable way to access them. In fact, back in 2020, Sundar Pichai predicted that within five to 10 years, quantum computing will break today's encryption systems. And just last week, Google's quantum computing division made a breakthrough in that direction. It successfully ran a new algorithm named Quantum Miko's on the Willow chip and this achieved a verifiable quantum advantage.

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  In simple terms, it ran complex simulations 13,000 times faster than the world's best supercomputer. Even better, the results were reproducible and more reliable, which is something previous quantum experiments struggled with. In short, Google just showed that quantum computing is inching from lab theory to real-world potential. A leap that could soon affect everything from chemistry to finance to even cybersecurity. That's where the real promise of quantum computing lies. Since quantum computers can process so many possibilities simultaneously, they're uniquely suited for complex simulations and optimization tasks. For instance, in chemistry and materials science, they could help chemists model molecule interactions precisely

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  to design new drugs, superconductors, or even next-gen batteries. This is something today's supercomputers struggle to do because the math becomes astronomically complex. However, this alone doesn't mean that quantum computers don't come with downsides. The biggest one being that they can easily break modern encryption standards and destroy the foundation of digital security. And in order to understand how, let's first see how it works today. Encryption for emails or other digital signatures essentially works by multiplying two prime numbers. Let's say you log into a website such as your bank. Your data isn't sent in plain text, it's scrambled using a public key,

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  which is a mathematical code made by multiplying two very large prime numbers, often hundreds of digits long. Here's where the trick lies. Multiplying them is easy, but if someone tries to do the reverse, that is figure out which two primes were multiplied to create that massive number, it's practically impossible for classic computers. This process is called RSA encryption, or prime factorization as said by my fifth-grade math teacher. This ensures that your data remains secure and reliable. It makes sure that two people who have never met can exchange information safely. One person encrypts the message using a public key, and the other decrypts it with a private key. To give you an idea of the scale,

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  even the most powerful supercomputer today would take billions of years to crack a 2048-bit RSE key by brute force. That's why the system is considered secure. Your bank details, passwords, and digital certificates all depend on this principle that breaking down a huge number into its prime components takes an unimaginably long time. Quantum computers don't play by the same rules. They use something called superposition, which allows them to process multiple possibilities at once, instead of checking each one sequentially. To understand this, here's a famous thought experiment proposed by Erwin Schrödinger, who's regarded as the founder of quantum physics. A cat is placed inside a sealed box with a small amount of radioactive material that

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  may or may not decay, triggering a mechanism that could release poison. Until someone opens the box, the cat isn't just alive or dead, it's both alive and dead at the same time. Its actual state exists as a combination of both possibilities until it's observed. Quantum computers apply the same idea to computing. While classical computers use bits, which can either be zero or one, quantum computers use qubits, which can be zero, one, or any combination of both simultaneously. This means that a quantum computer can process many possible answers simultaneously, something that no classical computer can do.

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  And with the help of an algorithm known as Schor's algorithm, a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could factor large prime numbers exponentially faster, effectively breaking the RSA encryption in hours or even days. And that's exactly the threat experts are worried about. It means the same tech that promises breakthroughs in medicine and materials could also render the world's online banking systems, government communications, and private data completely exposed. That's why security agencies and corporations worldwide are now racing to prepare for what they call Q-Day, the day quantum computers become powerful enough to break existing public key encryption. Governments, tech companies, and research institutions are already working on solutions

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  such as quantum proof systems. The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, that's NIST, has been running an international competition since 2016 to identify post-quantum cryptography, or PQC algorithms. These are basically new encryption methods that even quantum computers can't easily crack. In 2022, NIST announced four leading algorithms: Crystal, Skybird, For general encryption and crystals dilithium Falcon and Spinx plus for digital signatures. These are designed using complex mathematical problems that even the most advanced quantum computers can't solve efficiently, at least for now. Meanwhile, companies like CloudFair are testing hybrid encryption systems that combine traditional encryption like AES

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  with quantum resistant algorithms to safeguard future data transfers. In India, the government launched the National Quantum Mission in 2023 with a 6,000 crore piece investment to strengthen the country's capabilities in quantum computing, communication and cryptography. And that's where the strange irony lies. The same tech that could help us discover new drugs, design better batteries and solve humans most enduring problems, which we once thought were impossible to solve, could also expose every secret that we've tried to keep. I'll see you in the next one.

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  Thank you for listening to today's episode and if you want to share your feedback or suggestions, do drop us an email to [email protected]. Until next time.