As a researcher, I like to think about what-if scenarios, so let's consider one here: what if there is no more public-key encryption? Public-key encryption is used in countless ways in our daily lives, including online shopping, banking, and protecting anything we want to keep private from the rest of the internet. What if the mathematical problems that underpin public-key encryption (factoring, discrete log, lattice problems, decoding of codes) are all easy to solve because of mathematical breakthroughs by artificial intelligence or quantum computers? What happens to internet commerce? I see two worlds: 1. We rely on trusted intermediaries to send us keys for encryption. There is no more public-key encryption, and all we have is symmetric encryption like AES. In this case, we need trusted third parties to send counterparties dedicated keys for encrypting. 2. A second possibility that I like better relies on hash-based zk-STARK systems to create digital signatures that depend only on the hardness of hash problems. In this world, you could still have payment systems and internet commerce for sending payments, but you'll need to solve the challenge of easy, direct encrypted channels between counterparties.