Jeffrey Scholz (@Jeyffre) / X

Jeffrey Scholz

5,721 posts

Jeffrey Scholz

@Jeyffre

Building the graduate school of blockchain engineering @rareskills_io Use the ultimate developer recruitment network: @raretalent_xyz

Jakarta, Indonesia

rareskills.io

Joined September 2010

Pinned
Jeffrey Scholz
@Jeyffre
Dec 12, 2024
Since I just gained a large(r) following after the quantum computing thread, I should re-introduce myself. I'm the founder of @RareSkills_io. It's a free education platform for web3/blockchain programmers and smart contract auditors (cybersecurity for web3). RareSkills is most
Jeffrey Scholz
@Jeyffre
Dec 11, 2024
I read Google's paper about their quantum computer so you don't have to. They claim to have ran a quantum computation in 5 minutes that would take a normal computer 10^25 years. But what was that computation? Does it live up to the hype? I will break it down.🧵
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Jeffrey Scholz
@Jeyffre
Dec 11, 2024
I read Google's paper about their quantum computer so you don't have to. They claim to have ran a quantum computation in 5 minutes that would take a normal computer 10^25 years. But what was that computation? Does it live up to the hype? I will break it down.🧵
5.9M
Jeffrey Scholz
@Jeyffre
Oct 9, 2025
Almost half the researchers at RareSkills are from Nigeria. If you can’t find good talent there, it’s a skill issue with recruitment, not a country problem.
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Jeffrey Scholz
@Jeyffre
Dec 11, 2024
Replying to @Jeyffre
In my opinion, this whole thing is a regular exercise in technological marketing 1. Write about some seemingly powerful tech that creates fear (AI, nuclear, quantum, etc). Fear creates engagement. 2. Do a PR campaign where journalists write clickbaity headlines on a subject
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Jeffrey Scholz
@Jeyffre
Dec 11, 2024
Replying to @Jeyffre
Ok, this thread took off. For those who are new followers, I’m the founder of the company @RareSkills_io We focus on making difficult subjects in computer science, particularly blockchain, approachable and useful to you. Our most famous resource is the “RareSkills ZK Book”
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Jeffrey Scholz
@Jeyffre
Dec 11, 2024
Replying to @Jeyffre
First we need a crash course in quantum computing. A classical computer keeps information in 64-bit groups called "words." Each of these groups of bits are run through logic gates such as AND, OR, and NOT. These gates take one or two bits as an input and return a single bit as
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Jeffrey Scholz
@Jeyffre
Dec 11, 2024
Replying to @Jeyffre
So basically, quantum computing is "matrix multiplication of real numbers on crack."
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Jeffrey Scholz
@Jeyffre
Dec 11, 2024
Replying to @Jeyffre
A quantum computer, instead of using bits, uses a qbit. A qbit is a two-dimensional vector of real numbers. This means one qbit can hold "infinitely" more information than a single regular bit. A bit can only hold 0 or 1, but a qbit can hold a 2d vector of real numbers, so it
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Jeffrey Scholz
@Jeyffre
Dec 11, 2024
Replying to @Jeyffre
However, note that the problem is "rigged" in favor of quantum computers. The benchmark is explicitly modeling a quantum phenomenon, so *of course* we get a speedup. In other words, Google created a random distribution on the output that "seems correct." Why does it "seem
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Jeffrey Scholz
@Jeyffre
Dec 11, 2024
Replying to @Jeyffre
Quantum computing is kind of at the stage right now where some smart teenager wired a few logic gates together in a random fashion and said "hey look, my circuit made a random output and didn't explode!" Compared to previous attempts, it is an improvement. But he is still a long
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Jeffrey Scholz
@Jeyffre
Dec 11, 2024
Replying to @Jeyffre
You can think of an individual qbit as a "probability distribution" -- it averages around certain values but doesn't have a concrete value. However, when the qbit is "observed" it is forced into a vector representation of either [1, 0] represnting a binary 0, or [0, 1]
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Jeffrey Scholz
@Jeyffre
Dec 11, 2024
Replying to @Jeyffre
The current problem with quantum computers is that as the circuit gets bigger, they become less correct on average. All of the "talking to each other" creates so much noise the system stops working. Once your probability of being correct drops below a certain threshold your
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Jeffrey Scholz
@Jeyffre
Dec 11, 2024
Replying to @Jeyffre
Like a regular computer, a quantum computer keeps bits in groups. So a 64 bit quantum computer would have a vector of 64 2d vectors serving as it's "word." Here is where the speedup happens: in a regular computer, each of the 64 bits don't know anything about the value of any of
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Jeffrey Scholz
@Jeyffre
Dec 11, 2024
Replying to @Jeyffre
Running a quantum circuit means you plug in a quantum vector, run it through a bunch of matrix multiplications, then collapse the output. The final vector will be the correct answer. Technically, quantum computers can give wrong answers, but if you run the computation multiple
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