TL;DR
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Scientists in South Korea have claimed to have discovered a room-temperature superconductor (called LK-99) that operates at ambient pressure.
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See, superconductors already exist. But they have to be SUPER cold (around -460F or -270C) and kept under immense pressure (like Titan Sub pressure) in order to function.
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Which means they are insanely expensive to run and cannot be widely used.
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But a superconductor at room temperature and ambient pressure could run for free and be used to make an affordable desktop quantum computer.
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Quantum computers break great encryption (aka passwords) – and without encryption, cryptocurrencies would no longer be secure – making them useless.
Full story
Agree. Buckle up, because we’re about to get weird.
You’re going to ask questions like “what does that even mean?” and “how does this have anything to do with crypto?”
But do not worry! We cover it all and make it worth it.
So, are you ready? OK, here goes…
Scientists in South Korea have claimed to have discovered a room-temperature superconductor (called LK-99) that operates at ambient pressure.
What does that even mean?
Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity without resistance – meaning no energy is lost as the electricity passes through them and no heat is generated as a result.
That sounds a bit ‘meh’…
But this would be one of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of physics and change the world as we know it.
See, superconductors already exist.
But, they have to be SUPER cold (about -460F or -270C) and kept under tremendous pressure (like Titan Sub pressure) to function.
Which means they are insanely expensive to run and cannot be widely used.
But a superconductor at room temperature and ambient pressure could work for free and be applied to a huge range of products/use cases.
Here’s an example of the benefits something like LK-99 could bring to the world – on a scale of 1-10.
(1 is ‘cool, but not revolutionary’ and 10 is ‘holy hell, this changes everything’):
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1 – Charge your phone to 100% in seconds.
(No electrical resistance means no heat, which means your phone won’t explode if it charges too quickly).
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5 – A desktop quantum computer.
Quantum computers look like this. All that pipe work? It’s a cooling system.
The quantum chip is actually relatively small, but requires icy superconductors to operate. LK-99 could massively reduce the size of quantum computers.
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10 – Free, clean fusion energy.
Fusion reactors essentially mimic a miniature version of the sun inside a large metal tube.
The only problem is that the amount of energy required to run them currently exceeds the energy they emit.
Much of that energy goes into keeping the superconductors (which help keep the “miniature sun” inside the tube’s walls) cool.
LK-99 could tip the scales and allow fusion reactors to return more energy than they consume…providing clean, renewable energy at near-zero cost.
Ok, that’s all very cool! But…
How does this have anything to do with crypto?
Good. You know what we called the potential for a desktop quantum computer? Yes. That is a problem.
Quantum computers are good at many things… One of them is breaking encryption (aka passwords).
A cheap and accessible quantum computer would give a lot of people the ability to crack literally any password in the world with relative ease (regardless of complexity).
Which means that cryptocurrencies are no longer safe, making them useless.
… but then again – in a world where no passwords are secure, crypto storage would be the least of the world’s worries.
The good news/bad news (depending on how you look at it):
The paper released announcing the discovery of LK-99? It has yet to be peer-reviewed and proven beyond that one lab in South Korea.
The scientists who published it have claimed to have created/tested LK-99… but the rest of the scientific community has yet to (YET*) replicate it.
*the newspaper was only released a few weeks ago.
Relief. OK. We got through it.
First the internet, then blockchain technology, then AI, now superconductors… we are living through a WILD time in human history.
It’s as exciting as it is exhausting (/scary).
Make sure you rest and drink plenty of fluids, folks.