Quantum computing, the prospect of advanced computations beyond the binary limitations of ones or zeros, may be the harbinger of advancements to come. But cryptocurrency adherents are starting to wonder if their digital monetary system is ready for what this new age of data processing might bring.

Preparing for a 'potential catastrophe'
The "technological leap" of quantum computing could "pose new risks" to cryptocurrency users and potentially "undermine the cryptographic backbone of blockchain," said quantum computer developer Yuval Boger at Forbes. Although the "immediate risks are low," the future could see "large-scale, error-corrected quantum computers" capable of running algorithms that could break the elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) used by bitcoin as one of the industry's main security protocols.

While current quantum computers "aren't yet powerful enough," the "risk is real in the long term," said Isaac Kim, a computer science professor at UC Davis, in a recent interview with the crypto research firm Presto Labs. "Crypto is underprepared," researcher Rick Maeda said in an interview with CoinDesk last week. 

'Post-quantum' protections
Given how serious the threat to cryptocurrency from quantum computing is, a "proactive approach" is "critical" to preempt disruption to an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars annually, said researchers from the University of Kent's School of Computing in a late 2024 study detailing what such an approach might look like. The only way to prevent wide-scale quantum disruptions for an asset like bitcoin is to "upgrade — replace — the currently used public-key cryptosystems" to ones that have "no known vulnerabilities to quantum attacks." This is known as "post-quantum cryptosystems."

That type of complete "protocol update" would "take the cryptocurrency offline for 76 days," said Fortune. That downtime risk speaks to a "key barrier" to addressing the looming challenge, said Maeda. "It's difficult to create a way to monetize this." But those preparations need to happen sooner rather than later. "We can't wait until the threat is real to start taking it seriously. By then, it's already too late."

Disordered eating focused on extremely healthy nutrition has been on the rise in recent years, according to researchers. The disorder, known as orthorexia, lacks a formal designation in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, but experts say symptoms are increasingly common, especially as ultra-healthy eating gains ground on social media.

What is it?
The term "orthorexia," which combines "orthos" ("right") and "-orexia" ("appetite") to mean "righteous eating," was coined in 1997 by physician Steven Bratman in response to patients who were "driving themselves crazy" with their eating habits. His work labelled two stages of orthorexia: "healthy orthorexia, with an interest in healthy eating with no pathological features, and orthorexia nervosa, with an obsessive focus on healthy eating," said The Washington Post. Many people are "able to eat healthy without being orthorexic," said Bratman. The difference is the "obsessiveness and restriction that causes harm."

Without formal diagnostic criteria, it's "difficult to get an estimate on precisely how many people have orthorexia," said the National Eating Disorders Association. It's also unclear whether it's a "standalone eating disorder, a type of existing eating disorder like anorexia nervosa, or a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder."

What's driving the rise?
Social media is playing a role in perpetuating an upward trend in orthorexia, experts say, although the extent is unclear. It's "hard to tell" if there's an uptick "because we are better at recognizing it or because of social media," said Jennifer Wildes, a psychiatry professor at the University of Chicago Medicine, to the Post. "Most likely, it's both."

Increased social media use, particularly within online "clean eating" communities, has been linked to increased orthorexia symptoms, said José Francisco López-Gil, a senior researcher in lifestyle medicine at the Universidad de Las Américas in Ecuador, to the Post. The "post-pandemic shifts in eating habits, increased screen time and heightened health anxieties" are also possible factors. 

Between fad diets, the "protein-ification of nearly everything" and new wearable technology that "tracks all kinds of biometrics," it's "easy to get swept up in the health obsession craze," said HuffPost. "Videos all over social media in which people refer to certain foods as 'bad' or containing 'fake ingredients,'" have helped to "fuel a societal infatuation with 'eating healthy.'"