Conclusion

The journey of Bohr, Einstein, Alan Turing, and several others almost a century back has now led to the invention of quantum computers. The hype and the headlines in this field are getting bigger every day. However, mass industry adoption of this technology is several years (if not decades) away. In this chapter, I wanted to take the reader through a journey and introduce key people, principles, events and technology components within quantum computing.

It is important to understand why qubits are different from bits that today's computing world largely relies on. This chapter provides quantum methods and real-world applications that we will touch upon in future chapters. Applications of optical quantum computers that use photons will also be discussed in a subsequent chapter.

We briefly touched upon Blockchain and the use of cryptography. This is also critical, so that we can see the technological overlap between the two technologies. It is essential that the Blockchain community views this overlap as an opportunity rather than a major roadblock. I firmly believe that both these technologies are here to stay, and definitely here to enrich our lives by complementing each other across industries.

There are several practical applications of quantum computers across industries, including healthcare, logistics, finance, and cybersecurity in general. We will cover these in detail in this book.