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.
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[ 1.7 ms ] story [ 16.6 ms ] threadI think it's more like spotting an opportunity and having the technical skills to execute.
I mean, I guess if you count hacking HN ranking system = immediate impact Technology?
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.