Quantum Computational Supremacy and Its Applications

Last fall, a team at Google announced the first-ever demonstration of "quantum computational supremacy"---that is, a clear quantum speedup over a classical computer for some task---using a 53-qubit programmable superconducting chip called Sycamore.  In addition to engineering, Google's accomplishment built on a decade of research in quantum computing theory.  This talk will discuss questions like: what exactly was the contrived computational problem that Google solved?  How does one verify the outputs using a classical computer?  And how confident are we that the problem really is classically hard---especially in light of subsequent counterclaims by IBM?  I'll end with a proposed application for Google's experiment---namely, the generation of certified random bits, for use (for example) in proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies---that I've been developing and that Google is now working to demonstrate.