Y2Q

Y2Q, or Years to Quantum, is a term used to describe the advent of quantum supremacy, that is, when quantum computers will become superior to classical computers. Many researchers and computer engineers consider quantum supremacy to be imminent in the near-term. Once this occurs, standard methods of encryption will become obsolete. Thus all major forms of encryption used on the internet must become "quantum-proof". This represents a major task to analogous, and realistically much larger, than the Y2K problem.
Estimates
Some estimates of when quantum supremacy is likely to occur are 2026, 2030, and 2020.
Various methods have been suggested for Post-quantum cryptography, but would require a massive amount of work to implement across all technologies currently reliant upon current encryption methods. A project by the NIST has a project for Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization.
Affected Technologies
Most encryption used on the internet relies upon large prime number factorization. This is considered an NP problem - a problem which would require an impossibly long time to solve (i.e. longer than the lifetime of the universe) given that the only way known to solve this relies upon brute force (although this remains to be mathematically proven). It has been demonstrated by mathematician Peter Shor with the eponymous Shor's algorithm that prime factorization problems can be solved very quickly using a quantum device. Furthermore, two other common encryption methods, and NP problems, that are vulnerable are discrete logarithm problem and the elliptic-curve discrete logarithm problem.
* RSA encryption - most common form of encryption used on the internet, and which underlies online banking, social media, email, and nearly all major secure systems on the internet.
* blockchain - cryptographic hashing technology which underlies cryptocurrencies and has been implemented for other systems for electronic record-keeping
** cryptocurrencies - all forms of cryptocurrency currently in use rely upon cryptography that will be easily broken by quantum computers
 
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