Re:Ask HN: Which open mathematical problems block immediate ...
by marcus_chang on Wednesday November 29, 2017 @01:32AM
(#15805054)
> I don't think it works that way.
Sure it does. With new mathematical discoveries, there come direct and immediate consequences to the technologies built using previous assumptions - which will now either be validated or invalidated.
If, for example, prime factorization is proven to be not computationally difficult, invalidating the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_RSA_assumption, and somebody publishes a practical method, then most of the world's cryptography systems utilizing RSA would be hacked immediately.
Sure it does. With new mathematical discoveries, there come direct and immediate consequences to the technologies built using previous assumptions - which will now either be validated or invalidated.
If, for example, prime factorization is proven to be not computationally difficult, invalidating the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_RSA_assumption, and somebody publishes a practical method, then most of the world's cryptography systems utilizing RSA would be hacked immediately.