This is not the first time that this discussion has occurred on hotcopper forums comparing Archer Materials to financial technology stocks. It's a completely moot point, and let me elaborate.
If afterpay, zip, or any financial tech or cryptocurrency related product were to disappear overnight because of some hypothetical issue, then we'd simple just revert back to credit cards. It would have very little impact to the world. Sure, careers of people in the industry would be ruined. Retailers would need to adjust their marketing approach and go after people with cash or credit cards, but ultimately, the same old thing would happen in very much the same old way.
Now, currently, there is no mobile quantum computing platform. But there are quantum computers. Quantum computers are incredibly amazing devices. Just You can use a quantum computer to smash through so many iterations of complex calculations, that are much more suited to the way a quantum computer works compared to a digital computer. I won't pretend to be an expert on the mechanics, but hear me out. What a digital supercomputer does to calculate molecule interactions of hypothetical easily manufactured synthetic proteins to trial and error looking for low energy binding of synthetic protein to a spike protein virus particle, for example, can take hours. A quantum computer might replicate the same outcome in a fraction of a second. Now, that's a supercooled quantum computer. What about a mobile quantum computer? What about 1,000,000 room-temperature, small quantum computers all stacked up in a mega computation warehouse?
So already there are distributed computing projects where people like myself have been tirelessly running CPUs and graphics cards to find low energy binds to the COVID spike protein for vaccine and therapeutics research. There are drugs and vaccines now developed using this data, but the data is ongoing and we may yet find better ones. It takes many months of distributed computing and analysis. But what if, this could all be processed on a whim. Any mutations of sars-cov-2 maybe could have new synthetic protein vaccines designed and ready for testing within days. Now I'm saying could without any expertise at all in this field, just a lot of night-time reading and some imagination of the future, decades from now. Many other hurdles are also to be crossed. But the point is, room temperature quantum computers are not for minor improvements to products, services, and processes we currently use today. It will literally redefine what technology is, and flip the tech world upside down and shake it around, and will touch every industry in some way, either immediately or in due time.
Or think, from another perspective, what if today, digital computers were to disappear, and we only had valve-based computers. Imagine how different the world would be today with the population that we have. That's my other analogy to the difference that quantum computers at room temperature will make.
Any financial technology product in the future, will likely depend on quantum computers in some way or another for strengthening encryption. Will every end-point require quantum computing algorithms and chips to secure a transaction? Not sure! But one thing is for certain; we will never become dependent on afterpay or zip, but we will most certainly become dependent on quantum computing, in everything we do, in some way.
If you want to make a quick buck, go punt on any fintech or crypto. But if you're looking for a long term possibly incredibly highly rewarding investment that you might be more likely to retire with, read up on Archer Materials and quantum computing applications, and indulge in some imagination with me. (I note that plenty of people have retired on fintech or crypto, but I also feel like just as many have lost out).
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