system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 Quantum Computing

Is it faster? Or is it for storage? Is it real or just a theory? And how does it work?
gpt
Quantum Computing is currently just a theory. The basic idea is that computers actually work in binary. Information is in a series of bits. A bit is just a 0 or a 1. Quantum computing is the theory that a bit can be 0, 1 or both.

It is "faster" in the sense that it reduces the way to combine data. For instance, a 256 bit encryption key is currently thought of to be unbreakable because there are so many possible combinations that it would take all the computing power in the world several years to try out all the combinations.

Basically, if a computer were to "guess" a 256 bit encryption, it would literally need to first try 256 0's, then 255 0's and one 1, then 254 0's, one 1, one 0. etc. Quantum computing would be able to line up 256 quantum bits that are both 0 and 1 and quickly break the encryption.

Again, it's still theory, so we don't have something that can actually do this yet.