Questions about Quantum computing and crypto

[Swammerdami]

This article showed up in my newsfeed : "Chinese researchers using a quantum computer reportedly claim to have breached the encryption algorithms used in banking and crypto." (I didn't see a thread about either of these topics, so started this thread.)

As I tried to read the article, I found myself with so many questions, it was embarrassing. Here are some of them:

• Nowhere does the article mention factorization. Should I assume that neither the "breached" encryption algorithms nor the breakthrough, have anything to do with large prime numbers?
• Instead of just encrypting with some excellent encryption method ("X"), shouldn't we prepend or append some more trivial encryptions -- B-->C-->X-->D-->E. I suppose those trivial add-ons won't slow down the NSA with its classic computers, but for quantum computing wouldn't they need to be incorporated BEFORE wave-collapse, thereby hugely increasing the quantum computer programming difficulty?
• About 1/4 down on the page is a diagram (reproduced below). I think I understand the very basics of BitCoin Blockchain, and see how someone with enough mining power might be able to spend their BitCoins TWICE. But (a) what prevents this today; and (b) how does the "quantum breakthrough" help? (I THINK the short answer is that the breakthrough amplifies its possessor's mining power.)
• Is the word "crypto" in the article used as an abbreviation for "cryptocurrency"?

 

[bilby]

Is the word "crypto" in the article used as an abbreviation for "cryptocurrency"?

It certanly appears to be.

There is nothing here to suggest that any attack on current cryptography has become possible.

The author seems to be either deliberately or accidentally confusing the two meanings of "crypto" as an abbreviation.