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[–] Amadameus 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Application portion comes in when you need to consider many many many possibilities at once.

Suppose we have an encrypted file and we need to find the key. There are eleventy bazillion possible keys, trying them all would take longer than the lifespan of the universe.

Quantum computing, we have a superposition of all the states at once - essentially the computer would try every key all at the same time - and then they'd filter out the attempts that didn't meet some criteria.

It's a lot like bit-masking techniques, but using quantum effects instead of actual bits and transistors.