Quantum computing is a rapidly advancing field, with significant investments from countries like China, the US, and Australia.

China leads in quantum technology, holding a 37% share of patents and developing the "Origin Wukong" quantum computer.

The US has a high degree of industrial maturity in quantum computing, with companies like IBM leading the charge through heavy investment in research and development.

Australia leads in quantum research, with companies like Silicon Quantum Computing and Quantum Brilliance developing silicon-based technology.

IBM plans to deliver a 4,000-plus qubit machine by 2025.

Google's Sycamore processor can perform calculations in seconds that would take classical computers years.

China achieved quantum supremacy using its Zuchongzhi processor.

Quantum computing is expected to significantly impact fields like healthcare, finance, logistics, and energy.

Quantum computing can solve impossible problems, speed up machine learning, and aid in solving climate change and discovering new drugs.

Quantum computing is still in its early stages and faces significant technical challenges.

Error correction is a major challenge in quantum computing, with researchers developing techniques to reduce errors.

The quantum computing market is expected to reach USD 234.06 billion by 2032.

IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Honeywell are dominating the quantum computing market.

Countries like the US, China, and the UK are making significant advancements in quantum computing research.

Quantum computing development is a global effort to advance the field and address its limitations.

Quantum computing may revolutionize industries like healthcare, finance, and logistics, with companies already exploring its applications.

Quantum computing can optimize traffic management and process vast machine learning datasets.

Companies like Google and IBM are developing more robust and scalable quantum processors to overcome coherence hurdles.

Quantum computers can simulate protein behavior and design secure communication systems.

Companies like IBM and Google are making progress in developing more advanced quantum processors.

Quantum computing can improve financial modeling, risk assessment, personalized medicine, and genomics data analysis.

Quantum computing can design new materials, optimize performance, and solve complex problems efficiently.

Quantum computing is limited by its instability and error-prone nature, requiring significant advances for practical applications.

Quantum algorithms and applications are supported by software like Q#, Qiskit, and Cirq.

Qiskit 1.0 is a stable release of IBM's quantum software kit with advances in qubit fabrication and error reduction.

Qiskit offers generative AI for quantum code programming.

Quantum programming combines quantum mechanics, linear algebra, and computer science to advance cryptography, optimization, and simulation.

Quantum algorithms can be developed using classical-quantum hybrid approaches like QAOA.

IBM offers education programs and access to quantum computers to develop quantum computing skills.

Developing post-quantum encryption is crucial as quantum computers can break daily public key cryptography.

The US aims to replace encryption systems before quantum computers can compromise them by factoring large numbers.

The US government will require post-quantum cryptography by 2035, a field researched since 2003.

NIST is standardizing post-quantum cryptoalgorithms and will finalize guidance in 2024.

Taiwan and South Korea are developing post-quantum cryptography initiatives.

The US, China, and others are heavily investing in quantum computing, with China potentially surpassing the US and Europe.

Google has announced Dilithium, a post-quantum encryption algorithm combining ECDSA with quantum-resistant technology.

Intel has launched Project Amber for quantum-resistant cryptography and confidential computing security.

The UK and IETF have launched initiatives for post-quantum standards and protocols.

Quantum Computing Inc. and IBM are developing quantum technology for encryption and authentication.

Lattice-based cryptography offers a potential solution to post-quantum encryption challenges through secure key exchange.

FrodoKEM is a post-quantum KEM based on Learning With Errors (LWE).

The transition to post-quantum encryption is expected to take about a decade or more.

Developing post-quantum encryption requires international cooperation and investment.

The US National Institute will release four approved post-quantum cryptography standards next year.

NIST has published draft PQC standards and the PQC Coalition aims to drive their adoption.

Quantum computers can break existing cryptographic algorithms, prompting the development of quantum-resistant encryption.

Quantum computers pose an existential threat to classical encryption, making post-quantum cryptography crucial.

Companies and governments plan to migrate to quantum-safe cryptography to address quantum computer attacks on classical encryption systems.

The US aims to switch to anti-quantum algorithms by 2035, with NIST finalizing quantum-safe guidance.

The US government has issued directions on migrating to quantum-safe cryptography, a transition that may take over a decade.

IBM and Google are developing larger quantum processors, including IBM's 127-qubit Eagle.

China and Russia are developing quantum technology, with China investing $11 billion from 2019 to 2021.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology has selected four quantum-safe algorithms to be standardized by 2024.

The UK and IETF are developing strategies for a quantum-enabled economy and quantum-resistant protocols.

QuSecure and PQShield have achieved a live quantum-resilient satellite link and support PQC migration with secure implementations.

Google Chrome now supports quantum-resistant encryption, with NIST publishing draft PQC standards.

In 2022, the US passed the Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act into law, which President Joe Biden signed.

NIST and the NSA are establishing standards for post-quantum cryptography.

IBM and Google are leading in developing quantum computing, achieving successes with larger models.

China is making significant progress in developing quantum technology.

The US government is investing in quantum computing and quantum-safe cryptography.

Lessons learned include the need for crypto-agility, centralized management, and enterprise-wide oversight.

Transitioning to quantum-safe cryptography is expected to take at least a decade or more.

The NIST aims to finalize quantum-safe algorithms by 2024, with the US government targeting a switch by 2035.

Companies and governments must migrate to quantum-safe cryptography due to the imminent quantum threat.

Quantum computers use Q# and Qiskit for programming.

Julia is used for quantum software development, providing a flexible and efficient platform.

Q2Chemistry is suitable for large-scale quantum simulations of complex chemical systems.

IonQ is testing a 35-qubit system.

Quantum computing is a rapidly advancing field, with significant investments from countries like China, the US, and Australia.

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Content: Chandeliers, ‘qubits’ and Schrödinger’s cat: Inside the bizarre world of quantum computing

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Chandeliers, ‘qubits’ and Schrödinger’s cat: Inside the bizarre world of quantum computing

In the quantum realm, the laws of physics are different. Now its mind-bending tech could soon transform our lives. How does it work?

It was 2009, and a group of scientists had crowded around a tiny monitor in a Sydney physics laboratory. The team, led by electrical engineer Andrea Morello, held their collective breath and peered at a single flat line on the screen. Then, in the blink of an eye, the line changed: it was a series of blips, like a heartbeat. They’d hit paydirt. “When you see that symbol, you’re in the game,” recalls physicist Charles Tahan.

Welcome to the quantum world, a subatomic realm – yes, smaller than an atom – where the laws of physics are, well, different. The experiment made Morello and his team the first in the world to show that a quantum computer could be made using not diamonds, not the superconductor niobium, but everyday silicon. “To show you could do that, 100 different things had to go right,” says Tahan.

Quantum computing is one of the key technologies defining this century. Its proponents say it will do for computers what the car did to the horse and buggy. It will upend encryption and molecular biology. In theory, it could even possibly find cures for cancer. Australia is among the world leaders in a quantum computing gold rush, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saying his government is “serious about building a strong quantum ecosystem” and investing nearly a billion dollars.

Yet despite eye-watering outlays worldwide, quantum computing is still in its infancy, part of a mind-bending world that physicists are only beginning to fully grasp. What is it? And how will it make a difference to our lives?

How does a quantum computer work (and why did Alice in Wonderland have the jump on it?)

It’s often remarked that it looks like a beautiful chandelier, or a wedding cake. And IBM’s quantum computer, one of the world’s largest, is certainly an intriguing object, an intricate dome of golden wires and graceful tubes suspended from a ceiling.

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The part we can see, though, is really just the control and support system for a microchip (currently a version called Condor) buried deep inside. The glittering exoskeleton is there to keep its tiny heart as cold as possible – a hundred times colder than the coldest depths of space – and to feed information in and out, the process that makes it a “computer” and not just a science experiment.

The chip itself is smaller than a postage stamp, with several layers of circuitry and metal sandwiched in a tiny square, cooled to improve conductivity and to eliminate “noise”, the bugbear of many such devices. But even what we see here is not where the action happens. For that, we have to go deeper still, down into the chip and well beyond what’s visible through even the most powerful microscope, beyond the layers of individual atoms, into the atoms themselves.

‘The truth is the universe doesn’t run by the rules that we see every day – gravity, you bounce a ball and it falls. It runs on these other rules: quantum mechanics.’

In the subatomic realm of electrons, protons and photons, things happen very differently. Indeed, these tiny particles have no use for Newton’s laws of physics, nor even many of Einstein’s. “The truth,” says Tahan, “is the universe doesn’t run by the rules that we see every day – gravity, you bounce a ball and it falls. It runs on these other rules: quantum mechanics.”

Why these particles behave as they do in the quantum realm is a difficult concept to get your head around. Even Einstein resisted aspects of it, famously arguing that “God does not play dice with the Universe”. It was a misstep. “Because he didn’t believe in the completeness of quantum mechanics,” says Morello, “he lost a lot of productive years because he didn’t understand how it is possible that this thing is true.”

Many leading physicists investigated the concept from the early 1900s, including some familiar from popular culture today, notably Einstein and Neils Bohr (portrayed in Oppenheimer), Werner Heisenberg (whose name Walter White stole for his drug-chemist alter ego in Breaking Bad) and Viennese physicist Erwin Schrödinger, of the famous cat experiment (explained below).

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Lewis Carroll, meanwhile, may have had the jump on quantum physics with his ideas in the Alice books, as James Renner observed in The Wall Street Journal in 2015. “We speak of going down the wormhole into a mysterious world that defies Newtonian physics, where once Alice went down the rabbit hole into a mysterious world that had much the same effect. Now we speak of quantum particles being in two places at once or even Schrödinger’s cat being alive and dead at the same time, long after the Cheshire Cat’s grin was magically displaced from its body.”

The quantum realm has only truly begun to reveal itself to us relatively recently. In 1964, the Irish-born physicist John Bell published one of the most important theorems, which, according to Professor Andrew Whitaker in Physics World, “opened up the possibility of experimental philosophy, the study of what are normally thought of as philosophical issues in experiments. Not only do these experiments probe the deepest and most profound aspects of quantum theory, they also provide information on the fundamental nature of the universe.”

At the time, Bell’s theorem could not be tested in a lab. That would come in the late 1960s and early 1970s when experimentalists such as John Clauser began to show that the weirdness Bell had described on paper actually occurred in the real world. Which, at the time, was considered quite rude. One eminent physicist “was highly offended by my impertinent effort and told me that it was tantamount to professing a disbelief in quantum physics,” Clauser later recalled.

He and other apostates continued their work because he found some of the predictions “sufficiently bizarre that I could not accept them without seeing experimental proof”. Working with leftover lab equipment – “physics department scrap” – he went on to provide experimental evidence that refuted even Einstein’s theories. “I was very sad to see that my own experiment had proven Einstein wrong,” he said. Clauser would go on to win the 2022 Nobel Prize for Physics alongside Alain Aspect and Anton Zeilinger for their groundbreaking experiments with so-called “entangled” particles.

Quantum physicists still despair at the difficulties of explaining their weird world to outsiders. “Many writers fall back on boilerplate that makes physicists howl in agony,” wrote computer scientist Scott Aaronson in The New York Times in 2019. Unfortunately, says Gerard Milburn, a quantum physicist from the University of Queensland, “The quantum world lies beyond the reach of natural language.”

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But we’ll give it a go. Chiefly, particles in the quantum realm aren’t tied down to being in one place or state in the way bigger things are in the outside world, such as cats, which tend to be in one place at once. They obey different rules entirely. The first way to understand this oddness harks back to high-school science and how light can behave as both a particle and a wave. Photons – bursts of light – can act like ball bearings, with position and momentum. Yet light also behaves like a wave washing over a beach in a way that a ball bearing can’t. That’s a quantum physics party trick.

What is Schrödinger’s cat?

The most famous primer for quantum mechanics is the paradox of Schrödinger’s cat, a mind experiment devised by Schrödinger in 1935. A hypothetical cat goes into a box with a vial of poison gas, which has a 50-50 chance of killing it. You close the box and can’t see inside. So, without opening the box, you can’t know whether the poison has killed the cat or not. Therefore, posited Schrödinger, puss is neither dead nor alive but both – until you open the box.

In quantum mechanics, this state is called “superposition”. It’s impossible to describe properly without a background in higher-level mathematics, which we lack, but it generally means not knowing whether, say, an electron is over here, or over there, or – cat-like – in both places at the same time. Another way of looking at it is to visualise a coin spinning on its side. Until it stops and lands on one side or another, it’s not heads or tails but both.

At least, kind of.

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“Every explanation we give in lay terms is in some way wrong,” says Stephen Bartlett, a theoretical quantum physicist and director of the University of Sydney Nano Institute. “People often say a quantum superposition is in the value zero and the value one at the same time. That’s sort of right, and sort of not right.” Says Morello: “This is where language is failing us, right? If you’re trying to say that in plain English, it sounds really weird. But if you actually think about, you know, the mathematics of it, and the actual physical embodiment of that, it actually makes perfect sense.” Suffice to say, a real cat cannot find itself in “superposition”: this is a state that can exist only in the subatomic world.

How is this useful (and what’s a qubit)?

In a conventional computer, information is encoded as voltages that pass around the system thanks to millions of tiny transistors – essentially, gates or switches that turn on and off. A quantum computer is similar except that instead of using transistors as switches it uses subatomic particles, such as electrons or photons, that can have many more states than simply on or off, according to their position, momentum, spin direction and polarisation. Once harnessed – and there are many ways of doing that – these particles-as-switches are called “qubits”, a play on the word “bit”, the smallest unit of data that a computer can process and store.

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Information can be encoded on qubits in various ways: for his computers, Morello uses silicon and strong magnetic fields like those found in MRI machines. “The stuff that I build in my lab is actually a small silicon chip the size of a fingernail,” he says, “but the whole infrastructure around it is quite fancy. It’s a very powerful refrigerator that cools down the chip to [just] above absolute zero.

Critically, qubits can relate to other qubits in a state called “entanglement”. This enables quantum computers to perform multiple calculations simultaneously – which is their superpower. Schrödinger described entanglement as “the characteristic trait of quantum mechanics, the one that enforces its entire departure from classical lines of thought”. Sceptical Einstein called entanglement “spooky action at a distance”. Gerard Milburn says entanglement is great for building a computer “because if you want to have all these switches, having them strongly correlated is exactly what you want. And if you can control those correlations, you can do computation.”

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It’s these characteristics that have scientists and engineers excited. Not because quantum computers will necessarily take over from the conventional miracles we so rely on today but because they can do some particular things that transistor-based machines either struggle with or fail at completely. Today’s supercomputer might try to simulate molecular behaviour with “brute force”, says IBM’s quantum department. “But as it moves past the simplest, most straightforward molecules available, the supercomputer stalls. Quantum algorithms take a new approach to these sorts of complex problems, creating multidimensional computational spaces.”

‘Calculations that are completely impossible … would rapidly become possible on a quantum computer.’

This might include modelling how a drug might affect a virus, how new materials in aeroplanes might react to stress, or the exact process necessary to create a perfect chemical reaction.

“Calculations that are completely impossible – not just on present-day conventional computers but any conceivable future conventional computer – would rapidly become possible on a quantum computer,” says Andrew Doherty, professor of physics at Sydney University. “These are things where the application of that computer would be transformative to people’s lives without every home, you know, having a laptop quantum computer.”

Whether quantum computing will also revolutionise artificial intelligence is less certain. AI works by drawing from a huge amount of data, which is not something that naturally fits on a quantum computer, says Morello. “The problem with quantum computers in general and, in particular, with applications to AI is that loading data into them and reading data out of them is slow and cumbersome and prone to errors. It’s a bottleneck.”

Why is it so hard to build quantum machines?

Creating the qubits is hard, whatever material you start with. Interfacing with them via tiny wires like the golden lattice in IBM’s machines is hard. Getting accurate information from them is hard: “noise”, in the form of vibration or spurious electromagnetic signals, makes them behave badly and give poor results – “decoherence”, in physics speak.

Much of Andrew Doherty’s team’s work these days is in figuring out how to reduce this noise to acceptable levels and compensating for the errors that noise produces. “Compared to our conventional computers, quantum technology [computers] are very noisy devices,” he says. “They go wrong one time in 1000 as opposed to one time in an astronomically huge number of uses of [normal computers].”

Teams around the world are working on multiple approaches both to building the machines and compensating for their eccentricities, from labs in Australia to the tech giants Google, Microsoft and IBM – its Quantum Lab relies on superconducting qubits made from aluminium and niobiumand the Chinese government.

Some versions, such as IBM’s and Morello’s, chill the atoms to keep them as stable as possible. In contrast, the Australian company Quantum Brilliance is working with synthetic diamonds because they work at room temperature. “Unlike other materials,” says co-founder Marcus Doherty (no relation to Andrew), “diamond’s incredible hardness means that even at room temperature, there isn’t enough thermal energy in the environment to create vibrations that destroy the quantum properties of qubits.”

‘People are working really hard to try to find different mathematical problems that they think maybe quantum computers can’t crack.’

Another key moment in the quantum timeline came in 1994 when US mathematician Peter Shor showed that a quantum computer could crack encryption standards safeguarding everything from national intelligence systems to bank accounts. “He devised an algorithm, in theory, that he would need to run on a quantum computer,” says Bartlett. “And if you could build a quantum computer of sufficient size, then yeah, all information security falls apart.” Cybersecurity experts call that scenario Q-Day. “At the moment, people are working really hard to try to find different mathematical problems that they think maybe quantum computers can’t crack,” says Bartlett.

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In 2001, IBM made a seven-qubit device controlled through radio frequency pulses to demonstrate Shor’s Theorem. IBM’s prototype wasn’t given a huge task, managing to calculate that three times five was … wait for it ... 15. Yet this was considered a great success, even if it had shades of the famous supercomputer Deep Thought from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which ponders the question of “life, the universe and everything” for thousands of years before giving the answer: 42.(Adams also dreamed up the Infinite Improbability Drive for a spaceship called the Heart of Gold, which used quantum theory to allow it to cross through every point in the universe simultaneously, allowing interstellar travel without all that “tedious mucking about in hyperspace”.)

Then, in 2019, Google claimed its 54-qubit Sycamore processor had performed a calculation in 200 seconds that would have taken the world’s most powerful supercomputer 10,000 years – a breakthrough some breathlessly likened to the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903. Others were more sceptical, saying it would be many more years before quantum computers would have enough qubits – and be stable enough – to do anything actually useful. IBM said it could simulate Google’s experiment in two-and-a-half days on a “normal” computer, albeit if it had access to the Oak Ridge Summit supercomputer, a beast occupying an area the size of two basketball courts. IBM’s shimmering Eagle, meanwhile, had just 127 qubits; its successors, Osprey and now Condor, have pushed the bar to over 1000 and it plans for 1386 qubits in its Kookaburra in 2025.

Yet most of these devices are still basically proofs of concept, says Morello, the first step to manufacturing and miniaturising, as we saw with today’s transistor-based computers, which started out as rooms full of valves and cables. In the post-World War II era, says Andrew Doherty, “computers took up office floors of buildings in Manhattan and people put paper cards into them to program them. Out came numbers that even my childhood pocket calculator could have calculated right.” Many hundreds of billions of dollars have gone into developing computer technology, in packaging it for convenience and getting the components to work reliably, he says. “That whole engineering thing has got to grow up around these quantum technologies.”

Already, Marcus Doherty’s Quantum Brilliance has installed a quantum computer at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Perth and is about to export computers, at this stage for customers to experiment with quantum computing and work out how to make it useful. In the future, finding commercial applications for a quantum computer will require tailoring it, at least initially, says UNSW’s Maja Cassidy, a former quantum researcher for Microsoft. “People have to go in and understand a company’s problem, how they’re using classical computing and … work out what section might be enhanced by the quantum computer.”

Who is leading the quantum race?

China is the only other nation giving the United States a run for its money. Its leader, Xi Jinping, put accelerating quantum technology in his 2021 five-year plan. McKinsey & Company estimates China has spent at least $15.3 billion in public funds on quantum research. That partly came to fruition in April with the Chinese Academy of Science’s unveiling of a 504-qubit chip, still half the size of IBM’s biggest.

For its part, Australia got a head start with quantum research in the 1990s. Today, two major spinoffs from UNSW research are pursuing silicon-based quantum computing: Silicon Quantum Computing (SQC), led by Professor Michelle Simmons, and Diraq, led by Professor Andrew Dzurak. SQC’s approach involves embedding phosphorus atoms within a wafer of silicon. Dzurak’s approach involves trapping electrons on silicon transistors. Both have the advantage of silicon chips already being ubiquitous. “Today, in our phones and our laptops, the silicon chips that are in those have upwards of a billion transistors on them,” says Dzurak. “The benefit of the technology that we’ve developed is that we are also able to get millions, and ultimately billions, of quantum bits onto a single silicon chip.”

‘Computers as we know them today are an absolutely mind-blowing achievement. So any technology that has the ambition of being an alternative or being better than that has a phenomenally high bar to clear.’

Other leading players in Australia include Q-CTRL, which is working on controlling and enhancing quantum hardware; quantum security company QuintessenceLabs; and Doherty’s Quantum Brilliance, which used its synthetic diamonds in the world-first integration of a two-qubit quantum device into a supercomputer at room temperature in 2022.

Meanwhile, out of the University of Queensland came early gains in “photonic” quantum computing, which harnesses particles of light – photons – as qubits. In April, the federal and Queensland governments jointly set aside $940 million in share purchases, grants and loans for PsiQuantum, a Silicon Valley company whose founders include Australian professors Jeremy O’Brien and Terry Rudolph. Unlike ions or electrons, photons are not charged, Bartlett says, so are not sent haywire by electromagnetic forces – but they are hard to manipulate and measure.

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Another approach involves “trapped ion” quantum computing, pursued by US company IonQ: physicists take an atom, flick off an electron so it is positively charged, then suspend the resulting ion within an electromagnetic field and manipulate the ion with lasers. But Bartlett says this approach will be hard to scale, given the technology to suspend millions of ion qubits doesn’t yet exist.

In April, the federal government also announced $18 million for the University of Sydney to establish Quantum Australia, a research consortium between several universities headed by Bartlett. “It used to be a small research community,” he says. “You absolutely needed to speak the common language of everyone else, which were the rules of physics. Now we are really seeing quite a bit of specialisation.”

Even if quantum computers develop practical uses, they will likely live in vast, super-cooled server farms where land and power are cheap. We’ll communicate with them through our everyday devices, much as we download and upload data from cloud servers, Netflix, TikTok, DropBox, whatever, today. The real challenge for quantum computing, says Morello, is that the alternative is “really, really good”. “Computers as we know them today are an absolutely mind-blowing achievement. So any technology that has the ambition of being an alternative or being better than that has a phenomenally high bar to clear.”

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China leads in quantum technology, holding a 37% share of patents and developing the "Origin Wukong" quantum computer.

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Content: 【 Printing 】
【 Page 1 Page 2 】
What is the stable operation of "Origin Goku"?
Related LINKS http: / / www.CRNT.com 2024-05-12 13: 00: 13
Beijing, May 12 / According to the Economic Daily, as of May 7, China's third-generation autonomous superconducting quantum computer "Origin Wukong" has attracted more than 8 million visits worldwide.
Previously, it also successfully connected to the Yangtze River Delta hub Wuhu cluster computing power public service platform and other 3 supercomputing centers, marking the formal completion of China's general computing, intelligent computing, supercomputing, and measurement of the "four calculations in one" system.
What does the stable operation of "Origin Goku" show?
Demonstrated the stability and practicality of China's autonomous quantum computing power. "Origin Wukong" is China's third-generation autonomous superconducting quantum computer, equipped with 72 autonomous superconducting quantum chips.
This computer is named "Wukong", which means that the Chinese traditional mythological figure Sun Wukong is as vast as the divine powers, will change seventy-two. "Source Wukong" was independently developed by the Source Quantum team and launched on January 6 this year, and has been online for four months, with an average of about 66,700 daily global visits, and an average of nearly 1,500 computing tasks completed daily.
Quantum computing is a cutting-edge emerging technology, promising in areas such as artificial intelligence, biomedicine, and financial analysis.
If you compare a universal traditional computer to a bicycle, a quantum computer is like an airplane.
Decompose 300 large numbers, using a trillion-time traditional computer takes 150,000 years, using a trillion-time quantum computer only takes 1 second.
The biggest advantage of a quantum computer is its powerful computing power, but compared with traditional computers, the technology is immature, the manufacturing cost is high, and the reliability is not strong.
China's quantum computing technology is in the transition stage from laboratory research and development to industrial applications.
Demonstrates the great potential of China's independent quantum computing power out of the laboratory and towards industrialization, as well as the international recognition and competitiveness of China's quantum computers. "Origin Wukong" with hardware, chips, operating systems and application software are realized independently and controllable, and the localization rate is more than 80%, which marks the basic formation of China's superconducting quantum computer industry chain.
In the past four months of operation, "Benyuan Wukong" has successfully completed more than 178,000 computing tasks for users in 120 countries. The United States, Japan, Canada and other countries with quantum computers have shown great concern for "Benyuan Wukong", of which the United States users visit far more frequently than other countries.
In the field of quantum computing, developed countries led by the United States have started early, developed rapidly and have a high degree of industrial maturity, and have gradually established a "quantum computing ecological chain".
For example, IBM USA led the creation of the Quantum Computing Industry Network (IBM Quantum Network) in 2017, which has more than 250 members from the United States, Japan, Korea, Germany, Australia and other countries, involving Fortune 500 companies, start-ups and academic institutions.
However, although China started late in the quantum field, it has made rapid progress.
A recent paper on global quantum information technology patents shows that from 2003 to 2022, China's quantum information technology patent applications accounted for 37% of the world's total, surpassing the proportion of the United States slightly higher than 28%.
【 Page 1 Page 2 】
【 Printing 】
Related News:

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

What seminal quantum computers/ processors have been developed?

The US has a high degree of industrial maturity in quantum computing, with companies like IBM leading the charge through heavy investment in research and development.

Title:

Content: 【 Printing 】
【 Page 1 Page 2 】
What is the stable operation of "Origin Goku"?
Related LINKS http: / / www.CRNT.com 2024-05-12 13: 00: 13
Beijing, May 12 / According to the Economic Daily, as of May 7, China's third-generation autonomous superconducting quantum computer "Origin Wukong" has attracted more than 8 million visits worldwide.
Previously, it also successfully connected to the Yangtze River Delta hub Wuhu cluster computing power public service platform and other 3 supercomputing centers, marking the formal completion of China's general computing, intelligent computing, supercomputing, and measurement of the "four calculations in one" system.
What does the stable operation of "Origin Goku" show?
Demonstrated the stability and practicality of China's autonomous quantum computing power. "Origin Wukong" is China's third-generation autonomous superconducting quantum computer, equipped with 72 autonomous superconducting quantum chips.
This computer is named "Wukong", which means that the Chinese traditional mythological figure Sun Wukong is as vast as the divine powers, will change seventy-two. "Source Wukong" was independently developed by the Source Quantum team and launched on January 6 this year, and has been online for four months, with an average of about 66,700 daily global visits, and an average of nearly 1,500 computing tasks completed daily.
Quantum computing is a cutting-edge emerging technology, promising in areas such as artificial intelligence, biomedicine, and financial analysis.
If you compare a universal traditional computer to a bicycle, a quantum computer is like an airplane.
Decompose 300 large numbers, using a trillion-time traditional computer takes 150,000 years, using a trillion-time quantum computer only takes 1 second.
The biggest advantage of a quantum computer is its powerful computing power, but compared with traditional computers, the technology is immature, the manufacturing cost is high, and the reliability is not strong.
China's quantum computing technology is in the transition stage from laboratory research and development to industrial applications.
Demonstrates the great potential of China's independent quantum computing power out of the laboratory and towards industrialization, as well as the international recognition and competitiveness of China's quantum computers. "Origin Wukong" with hardware, chips, operating systems and application software are realized independently and controllable, and the localization rate is more than 80%, which marks the basic formation of China's superconducting quantum computer industry chain.
In the past four months of operation, "Benyuan Wukong" has successfully completed more than 178,000 computing tasks for users in 120 countries. The United States, Japan, Canada and other countries with quantum computers have shown great concern for "Benyuan Wukong", of which the United States users visit far more frequently than other countries.
In the field of quantum computing, developed countries led by the United States have started early, developed rapidly and have a high degree of industrial maturity, and have gradually established a "quantum computing ecological chain".
For example, IBM USA led the creation of the Quantum Computing Industry Network (IBM Quantum Network) in 2017, which has more than 250 members from the United States, Japan, Korea, Germany, Australia and other countries, involving Fortune 500 companies, start-ups and academic institutions.
However, although China started late in the quantum field, it has made rapid progress.
A recent paper on global quantum information technology patents shows that from 2003 to 2022, China's quantum information technology patent applications accounted for 37% of the world's total, surpassing the proportion of the United States slightly higher than 28%.
【 Page 1 Page 2 】
【 Printing 】
Related News:

How much have countries and blocs invested in quantum computing?

What companies are leading in developing quantum computing?

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

What have been the landmark achievements in quantum computing?

IBM's world's first integrated quantum computing system, IBM Quantum System One

What seminal quantum computers/ processors have been developed?

IBM's 65-qubit Hummingbird
20-qubit "IBM Q System One"

Australia leads in quantum research, with companies like Silicon Quantum Computing and Quantum Brilliance developing silicon-based technology.

What are important areas in quantum research?

IBM plans to deliver a 4,000-plus qubit machine by 2025.

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Content: We are excited to bring Transform 2022 back in-person July 19 and virtually July 20 - 28. Join AI and data leaders for insightful talks and exciting networking opportunities. Register today!

IBM today updated its existing quantum computing roadmap, foreseeing a 4,000-plus qubit machine by 2025. Included in its plan is orchestration for more potent combinations of classical and quantum resources.

Such combinations, which comprise what may be called “quantum-centric supercomputing,” will place the new quantum crew more firmly in the world of high-performance computing, where technologists tackle some of humankind’s most pressing challenges.

IBM said it expects to deliver in 2023 software tooling that allows developers to run jobs that help them tap into both quantum and classical computing resources. IBM said it sees no letup in the steady advance of quantum scaling.

The company uses the term “Serverless Quantum” to describe an architecture that deploys infrastructure that assigns work to processors of either the classical or quantum variety.

“Serverless Quantum is part of getting the world ready for quantum-centric supercomputing,” according to Jerry Chow, IBM fellow and director of quantum infrastructure. He likened the effect to today’s elastic computing methods, “in the sense that you have computing resources on demand.”

Speaking with VentureBeat, Chow said the idea is that parts of problems can be handled by either classical CPUs, GPUs or non-classical QPUs, or quantum processing units. This is enabled by a common service layer that efficiently orchestrates, or arranges, workload assignments.

Better hardware and software methods for interchip communications is also important in this quantum quest, Chow indicated as he discussed future plans for quantum “circuit knitting.”

“That’s where you can take larger problems,” he said, “and find ways to break them down into small-order quantum circuits, and knit or take all the results and put them back together.”

The problems imagined are manifold, and some appear especially pressing.

Simulating nature with quantum systems, for example, is seen as a path to efficiencies that could drive substantial environmental, social and governance improvements.

Also, world governments are now seen in a race to succeed in quantum computing, as quantum systems could crack long standing cryptographic coding practices. Viewers suggest adversary governments are gathering encrypted data now, to process when quantum breakthroughs occur.

Sticking to their circuit knitting

IBM has indicated Serverless Quantum capabilities in its Qiskit Runtime software, including circuit knitting, will support distribution of parallelizable work in 2023. As well, improvements in error mitigation and suppression are expected to improve quality of quantum results, the company said. These are due for Qisket as part of the roadmap in 2024 and 2025.

The bird is the word when it comes to code names for IBM quantum processors. Last year, IBM released a 127-qubit Eagle processor to be followed this year by Osprey, a 433-qubit unit. An increasingly powerful flock of IBM qubit processors will follow. IBM’s roadmap anticipates: a 133-qubit Heron processor to appear in 2023; a 462-qubit Flamingo processor in 2024; and the 4,158-qubit Kookaburra device in 2025.

While Heron’s qubit count may look like a step back, it’s important to IBM’s overall plans to knit clusters of qubit processors together. That is vital to IBM’s assertions of continued scalability.

“What’s exciting about Heron is that it is defined in such a way that they’re going to be classically controllable [via] the same control hardware infrastructure. So what that means is effectively, we’re going to have quantum computing with classical communication and classical parallelization,” said Chow, who is expected to further detail IBM’s  quantum roadmap this week at the Inside Quantum Technology Conference 2022 in San Diego, Calif.

Quantum timelines

Timelines for quantum computing have been closely watched since qubits first emerged from the lab as part of physics experiments. A common joke holds that today, just as at the turn of the century, “quantum computing is five to ten years away.”

But IBM’s timelines for quantum computing have usually been realistic, according to Brian Hopkins, analyst, Forrester Research.

“IBM has the most detailed roadmap of any of the full stack quantum computing vendors I cover,” he told VentureBeat via email. “Furthermore, they are establishing credibility with the market by completing roadmap milestones per their plan.”

That gives Forrester’s Hopkins confidence in IBM’s 4,000-plus qubit projections, although he emphasizes that IBM is still refraining from any meaningful prediction on when its computers and software will be able to demonstrate advantage – in the form of a positive ROI — for any problem domain.

Hopkins goes on to say this is valuable, in that the company will have greater credibility when it does prove such an advantage.

“Even when we hit advantage for one problem area, it will still be many years before quantum computers are scalable and powerful enough to be applicable to the many areas where we see potential,” he said.

We love qubits – but….

Skepticism of quantum computing timelines is not likely to abate, but elements of IBM’s new timeline suggest the technology may be moving forward faster than some skeptics thought.

While “qubit counts” will get the headlines here and elsewhere, the technology advances that surround qubit research bear closer watching, as do hybrids that match classical and quantum computing to different parts of problems.

“We love qubits – but the exact number is not as important as [the fact] that we have defined the path for the technology to keep scaling,” said Chow.

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What companies are leading in developing quantum computing?

Google's Sycamore processor can perform calculations in seconds that would take classical computers years.

Title:

Content: Google develops a quantum computer that can instantly make calculations that would take the best rival supercomputers 47 YEARS

  • Google claimed to have achieved 'quantum supremacy' before its rivals in 2019
  • But at the time the huge claim was questioned by quantum rivals including IBM
  • Now a newer device is 'beyond capabilities of existing classical supercomputers'

Within the next couple of decades, experts think quantum computers will replace the 'classical' computers at our desks and revolutionise our lives.

By employing the odd effects of quantum physics, they'll be capable of speeding up machine learning, solving climate change and discovering new drugs, it's believed.

Now, Google claims it's hit a major milestone in the quest to build such a device, by achieving 'quantum supremacy' – solving problems that no classical machine can.

The tech giant says it has created a quantum computer capable of instantly making calculations that would take even the fastest computer in existence today 47 years to do.

If this sounds familiar, Google said it achieved quantum supremacy back in 2019, although at the time the claim was questioned by opponents.

Google claims it's achieved 'quantum supremacy' - using a quantum device to solve problems that no classical machine can. According to Google, the newest version of its Sycamore quantum processor runs 70 qubits, more than its earlier version of Sycamore that had 53 qubits (pictured)

READ MORE: Google 'achieved quantum supremacy' in 2019

Google announced its 2019 breakthrough in Nature

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Rival IBM pointed out that the task Google's Sycamore quantum computer was able to perform was not a particularly difficult one and could technically be done by a classical machine albeit more slowly.

Four years on, Google researchers claim to have created a more powerful machine with capabilities beyond classical machines – in other words, quantum supremacy.

It remains unclear how much the quantum computer cost to develop, although MailOnline has contacted Google for further information.

'Quantum computers hold the promise of executing tasks beyond the capability of classical computers,' the team say in their paper, published on the arXiv pre-print server, yet to be peer reviewed.

'We estimate the computational cost against improved classical methods and demonstrate that our experiment is beyond the capabilities of existing classical supercomputers.'

Quantum technology makes use of the spooky effects of quantum physics to vastly speed up information processing, which could lead to the most powerful computer on Earth.

Even the fastest computers that exist today – such as the Frontier supercomputer in Tennessee – don't match the potential of quantum computers.

These 'conventional' or 'classical' computers use the processing language of binary code, a language based on one of two states – zeroes or ones.

In the new paper, Google demonstrates quantum supremacy or quantum advantage. This graph compares performance of the 70-qubit quantum computer compared with the previous iteration (Sycamore-53) and the Chinese Zuchongzhi quantum computer

Even the fastest computers that exist today, such as the Frontier supercomputer in Tennessee (pictured), don't match the potential of quantum computers

READ MORE: 'Quantum apocalypse' could make data vulnerable

Quantum computing could break the encryptions that secure banking and medical details, experts say (file photo)

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But quantum mechanics allows a unit of quantum information – a quantum bit or 'qubit' – to be in a state of zero, one, or both states simultaneously.

According to Google, the newest version of its Sycamore quantum processor runs 70 qubits, more than its earlier version of Sycamore that had 53 qubits.

A quantum processor with 70 qubits means that it can store and process 70 quantum bits of information – impossible for a classical computer however fast or slow it's going.

To put this power increase in perspective, the team says Frontier would only take 6.18 seconds to match a calculation from Google's 53-qubit computer, but would take 47.2 years to match its latest one.

Google researchers say they now have the 'ultimate goal of demonstrating and verifying the beyond-classical performance for our 70-qubit device'.

IBM is yet to comment on Google's new work, but Steve Brierley, chief executive of Cambridge-based quantum company Riverlane, told the Telegraph that Google's new work is a 'major milestone'.

'The squabbling about whether we had reached, or indeed could reach, quantum supremacy is now resolved,' he said.

IBM's Q System One (pictured) is a quantum computer available to businesses and researchers. The IBM Q System One is a powerful quantum computer, but it is not yet powerful enough to achieve quantum supremacy

READ MORE: Sussex reveals blueprint for building quantum computer

The University of Sussex is leading the UK's charge to build a quantum computer

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However, Sebastian Weidt, from the University of Sussex's Ion Quantum Technology group, echoed much of the criticism from 2019 – that Google is yet to demonstrate solving a useful problem with quantum.

'This is a very nice demonstration of quantum advantage,' Weidt said.

'While a great achievement academically, the algorithm used does not really have real world practical applications though.

'We really must get to utility quantum computing – an era where quantum computers with many thousand qubits actually begin to deliver value to society in a way that classical computers never will be able to.'

Professor Winfried Hensinger, director of the Sussex Centre for Quantum Technologies, told MailOnline: 'Google solved a particular academic problem which is hard to compute on a conventional computer.

'Their most recent demonstration is yet another powerful demonstration that quantum computers are developing at steady pace.

'The next important step will be to build quantum computer which can correct for the inherent errors within their operation.'

The University of Sussex is leading the UK's charge to build a quantum computer, along with the likes of big tech firms including Google, IBM and Microsoft.

Ultimately, the aim is to build a 'commercial' quantum computer – one that could be purchased by members of the public.

As this is still a decade or two away at least, for now, firms are building 'experimental' quantum computers that are still in the research and development phase.

IBM has already created a quantum machine called Q System One, available for businesses and researchers to use.

After it was revealed in 2019, critics pointed out that it only had 20 qubits and was not powerful enough to achieve quantum supremacy.

Did Google really achieve quantum supremacy in 2019?

In 2019, Google said its 53-quibit quantum computer could perform a calculation in 200 seconds that would take classical computers 10,000 years.

Writing in the journal Nature, the team said they performed a fixed set of operations that entangles 53 qubits into a quantum state to solve a random number sampling task.

However, Google’s big rivals in quantum technology research including IBM took issue with Google's claim that it had achieved the so-called act of 'quantum supremacy' – solving problems that no classical machine can.

IBM, which is working on its own quantum computer design, argued that the random number generator task completed by Google's 'Sycamore' quantum computer is technically achievable on a classical computer – after 10,000 years of processing.

‘Because the original meaning of the term quantum supremacy, as proposed by John Preskill in 2012, was to describe the point where quantum computers can do things that classical computers can't, this threshold has not been met,' IBM researchers wrote in a blog post.

Professor Winfried Hensinger, director of the Sussex Centre for Quantum Technologies, told Laboratory News at the time: ‘The problem they [Google] picked is a completely utterly useless problem.

'The next step will be to solve useful problems.’

Google claims quantum computer breaththrough

What advantages do quantum computers have over conventional computers?

extremely fast calculations
extremely complex calculations

What companies are leading in developing quantum computing?

What have been the landmark achievements in quantum computing?

Google's Sycamore quantum supremacy experiment

China achieved quantum supremacy using its Zuchongzhi processor.

Title:

Content: Google, IBM and China have already achieved quantum supremacy. Now they face another challenge: the correction of errors

Quantum supremacy is no longer at the center of the debate. It was at the end of 2019 because it came to light that the Google team led by John Martinis had managed to achieve it using its Sycamore quantum processor, and no one had done it until that moment. The noise that this news caused when it broke was justified.

But a year later, in December 2020, the group of Chinese researchers led by Jian-Wei Pan published an article in Science showing that I had also reached using its Zuchongzhi superconducting processor. And a year later, in November 2021, IBM followed suit and announced that it had reached this milestone using its 127-qubit Eagle quantum processor.

At this point no one doubts that quantum computers have come a long way. And, furthermore, they have done it in a real record time if we bear in mind that the first solid theoretical proposals arrived in the mid-1990s. And they are already capable of solving a few problems (very few still). in much less time than the most advanced supercomputers we currently have.

In fact, this is what quantum supremacy consists of: in solving in a short period of time, a few minutes or a few hours, a problem in which a classical supercomputer would spend many years. Even several centuries. Or millennia. Right now it is not too important whether these problems have practical applications or not. Whether or not they are relevant. We are still establishing the foundations of quantum computing, and the important thing is to face the challenges that are around the corner.

In search of higher quality qubits

One of the biggest challenges facing researchers involved in the development of quantum computing is delaying the onset of quantum decoherence. This phenomenon occurs when the necessary conditions for a system that is in an entangled quantum state to be maintained disappear.

Perhaps a slightly simpler way of describing it is to see it as a system that stops behaving as dictated by the rules of quantum mechanics when certain conditions are met, beginning to behave from that moment on as dictated by the rules of classical physics. . When does quantum decoherence appear? quantum effects disappear. And, therefore, also the advantages that they bring in the context of quantum computing.

The time it takes for quantum decoherence to appear is closely linked to the quality of the qubits

This phenomenon is very important because it helps us understand why many macroscopic physical systems do not exhibit quantum effects. Or, what is the same, why in our daily environment we cannot observe the counterintuitive effects of quantum mechanics. In any case, what is really relevant is that as the the quality of the qubits of a quantum processor, the longer it takes for quantum decoherence to appear. And, for this reason, we have more time available to carry out operations with it.

The two qubit fabrication technologies that are currently giving us the best results are superconducting qubits, which benefit greatly from recent advances in silicon lithography, and ion traps. However, some research groups also have other very promising technologies on the table that are worth pursuing, such as neutral atoms or the ions implanted in macromolecules.

IBM already has a 127-qubit superconducting quantum processor, and by the end of 2023 it plans to have Condor ready, a promising quantum chip with no less than 1,121 qubits.

We already brush the correction of errors with the tips of our fingers

The other big challenge facing quantum computing right now is error correction. Quantum computers make errors when carrying out some operations, and when this happens, the results they return to us are not correct, of course. The problem is that implementing a quantum error correction protocol it’s not trivial. And furthermore, if they abound, it is essentially impossible to correct them and simultaneously prevent the quantum processor’s efficiency from sinking.

Fortunately, we have good news. As we told you a few days ago, three independent research groups have managed to perfect superconducting qubits that have an accuracy greater than 99%. This simply means that they make mistakes very infrequently, and the good news is that when they are so infrequent it is easier to correct them. Much easier.

When the incidence of errors is less than 1%, it is much easier for quantum fault-correction protocols to carry out their task

In fact, these research groups ensure that when the incidence of errors is less than 1% quantum fault-correction protocols find it much easier to do their job. At the moment they are working with only one or two qubits, and these quantum processors are too simple to solve significant problems, but if they manage to scale this technology to many more qubits, quantum computers could leave behind one of the biggest challenges they currently face. .

As we have just seen, quantum computing is advancing at a breakneck pace. The entry of private companies in this sector you are greatly accelerating your progress, but before we get carried away with enthusiasm, it is important that we keep in mind that there are other challenges that are also crucial to solve.

Two of the most substantial are the need to control qubits more precisely, and also the importance of implementing new quantum algorithms that they are able to help us tackle the problems that we cannot solve with the most powerful classical supercomputers that we have today. Still, the future for quantum computing is hopeful. And, above all, very promising.

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What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

What have been the landmark achievements in quantum computing?

China's "Zu Chongzhi-2" quantum supremacy experiment

Quantum computing is expected to significantly impact fields like healthcare, finance, logistics, and energy.

Title:

Content: Quantum Computing Market was valued at nearly USD 234.06 billion by 2032

Prudour Private Limited

Updated · Mar 06, 2023

Quantum Computing Market Overview

Published Via 11Press: Quantum computing is a rapidly developing market that is revolutionizing how we approach computing and data processing. By employing principles of quantum mechanics to perform computations, quantum computers are capable of solving problems that classical computers may find impossible or impracticable to resolve.

The global quantum computing market size is forecast to reach USD 234.06 billion by 2032 from USD 10.13 billion in 2022, rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 36.89% during the forecast period.

At present, the quantum computing market is dominated by a few major players such as IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Honeywell. These firms are investing heavily in quantum computing research and development as well as creating quantum computing hardware and software systems.

The quantum computing market is expected to have a profound effect on industries such as healthcare, finance, logistics, and energy. Some key applications of quantum computing include drug discovery, supply chain optimization, financial modeling, and climate modeling.

Though the quantum computing market is promising, it still faces several obstacles such as high costs of hardware, a shortage of skilled experts in this area, and technical difficulties when building large-scale quantum computers. With ongoing research and development efforts, however, these problems should be overcome within the coming years, leading to even greater growth and innovation in this space.

Key Takeaways

  • The global quantum computing market size was valued at USD 234.06 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 36.89% from 2022 to 2032.
  • Quantum computing is capable of solving problems that would be intractable or impossible for classical computers to solve.
  • The quantum computing market is dominated by a few major players, including IBM, Google, Microsoft and Honeywell.
  • The quantum computing market is expected to have a profound effect on numerous industries, such as healthcare, finance, logistics and energy.
  • Quantum computing has many important applications such as drug discovery, supply chain optimization, financial modeling and climate modeling.
  • The quantum computing market remains plagued by several obstacles, such as the high cost of quantum computing hardware, lack of qualified quantum computing experts and technical difficulties in building and running large-scale quantum computing systems.
  • Research and development are expected to overcome these obstacles within the next couple of years, propelling even greater growth and innovation in the quantum computing market.

Request For Sample Report: https://market.us/report/quantum-computing-market/request-sample/

Regional Snapshot

  • North America: North America is currently the leading market for quantum computing, with the United States playing a major role. Major companies such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft are driving this growth through their presence and investment in research and development activities related to quantum computing. This region boasts numerous key players such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft which are driving demand within this region.
  • Europe: Europe is an increasingly important market for quantum computing, with countries such as the UK, Germany, and France investing heavily in research and development. Through partnerships between quantum computing companies and other technology firms as well as the growing adoption of quantum computing across various industries, this region’s market is experiencing rapid expansion.
  • Asia Pacific: The quantum computing market in Asia Pacific is expected to experience significant growth over the coming years due to increased investments in research and development by countries like China, Japan, and South Korea. Furthermore, there have been an increasing number of collaborations between companies using quantum computing with academic institutions as well as its increasing adoption across industries like healthcare and finance – all contributing factors for market expansion within this region.
  • The Rest of the World: Countries such as Brazil, South Africa, and the UAE are expected to experience significant growth in the quantum computing market over the coming years due to increased investments in research and development efforts as well as the growing adoption of quantum computing across various industries. These factors are fueling this region’s meteoric rise in this region.

Drivers

  • Quantum Computing Gaining Adoption in Various Industries: Quantum computing is seeing an uptick in popularity across a range of industries, such as healthcare, finance, logistics, and energy – as companies seek to use their power to solve complex problems and gain an edge in competition.
  • Investments in Quantum Computing Research and Development: Governments, academic institutions, and private companies have made substantial investments in quantum computing research and development, spurring innovation and progress within the field.
  • Growing Number of Partnerships and Collaborations: There has been an uptick in partnerships and collaborations between quantum computing companies and other technology firms, as well as academic institutions and research organizations. This trend is propelling the development of new quantum computing hardware and software systems, as well as its adoption across various industries.
  • Increasing Access to Cloud-Based Quantum Computing Services: The growing availability of cloud-based quantum computing services is making it simpler for companies and researchers to utilize this cutting-edge technology, spurring adoption and innovation within the field.

Restraints

  • Limited Access to Qualified Quantum Computing Experts: Unfortunately, there is currently a shortage of highly experienced quantum computing specialists, making it challenging for companies to construct and sustain quantum computing systems.
  • Technical Challenges in Building and Maintaining Large-Scale Quantum Computing Systems: The development of large-scale quantum computing systems is still in its early stages, so there are numerous technical obstacles that must be overcome, such as noise reduction, error correction, and scalability.
  • Limited Quantum Computing Applications: Although the list of potential applications for quantum computing is growing, the number of practical ones that have been developed and implemented remains limited. This can make it challenging for companies to justify investing in quantum computing technology.
  • Regulatory Challenges: Quantum computing technology may face regulatory restrictions, particularly around data privacy and security. This could create additional obstacles to the adoption and investment in the technology.

Opportunities

  • Growing Number of Partnerships and Collaborations: The growing number of partnerships and collaborations among quantum computing companies, other technology firms, academic institutions, and research organizations is creating opportunities for the development of new quantum computing hardware and software systems as well as its adoption across various industries.
  • Advancements in Quantum Computing Hardware and Software: With the rapid progress being made in the development of quantum computing hardware and software, new opportunities will present themselves for applying this technology across various industries and fields.
  • The growing availability of cloud-based quantum computing services: Cloud-based quantum computing services are making it simpler for companies and researchers to access and utilize quantum computing technology, spurring adoption and innovation within the field.
  • Growth of Quantum Computing as a Service: As more companies and researchers embrace the potential of quantum computing, cloud-based quantum computing services are creating exciting new business opportunities for those offering these solutions.
  • Potential for Breakthroughs in Areas such as Drug Discovery, Finance, and Energy: Quantum computing holds the potential to unravel complex issues in fields like drug discovery, finance, and energy – leading to major breakthroughs and advances. This presents companies with unique opportunities for those who can develop and implement quantum computing solutions in these sectors.

Challenges

  • Technical Challenges in Constructing and Running Large Quantum Computing Systems: As quantum computing systems continue to emerge, numerous technical obstacles must be overcome such as noise reduction, error correction, and scalability. These issues make it challenging for companies to construct and run these massive quantum computers efficiently.
  • Limited Access to Qualified Quantum Computing Experts: There is currently a shortage of highly experienced quantum computing professionals, making it difficult for companies to construct and maintain quantum computing systems. This shortage could potentially restrict the growth of this industry in the coming years.
  • Quantum computing Applications: While quantum computing has many potential uses, the number of practical applications that have been created and implemented remains limited. This could make investing in quantum computing technology and research on practical applications an attractive prospect.

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Recent Developments

  • Google Claims Quantum Supremacy: In 2019, Google claimed to have achieved quantum supremacy by performing a calculation on its quantum computer that even the most powerful supercomputers would take thousands of years to complete. This was seen as an important milestone in the advancement of quantum computing technology.
  • IBM Launches Quantum Computing Program for Students: In 2020, IBM unveiled a quantum computing program specifically tailored towards students that provides them with access to IBM’s resources and tools, as well as a platform for learning and collaboration.
  • Honeywell Achieves Quantum Computer Record Performance: On March 20, 2021, Honeywell revealed its creation of a quantum computer with an astonishing quantum volume of 512. This feat marked an amazing advancement in quantum computing technology and demonstrated how rapidly progress has been made since then.
  • Amazon Web Services Announces Quantum Computing Service: On June 2021, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced the launch of its own quantum computing service called Amazon Bracket. This offering gives customers access to various vendors’ hardware as well as tools and resources for developing and testing quantum algorithms.

Key Market Segments

Type

  • Hardware
  • Software
  • Services

Application

  • Defense
  • Healthcare & pharmaceuticals
  • Chemicals
  • Banking & Finance
  • Energy & power

Key Market Players

  • D-Wave Systems
  • Google
  • IBM
  • Intel
  • Microsoft
  • 1QB Information Technologies
  • Anyon Systems
  • Cambridge Quantum Computing
  • ID Quantique
  • IonQ
  • QbitLogic
  • QC Ware
  • Quantum Circuits
  • Qubitekk
  • QxBranch
  • Rigetti Computing

Nature Insights

  • Progress is being made in the development of quantum computing hardware: Despite the challenges facing large-scale quantum computing systems, progress is being made on quantum computing hardware. This includes creating quantum processors with increasingly more qubits and creating new materials suitable for use in quantum computers.
  • Quantum computing software is still in its early stages: While progress is being made with quantum computing hardware, software development for quantum computation remains at a standstill. This presents an immense challenge to the industry as developing efficient quantum algorithms is essential to realizing its full potential.
  • Collaboration is essential to the advancement of quantum computing: Collaboration between companies, academic institutions, and research organizations is essential for progress in this industry. This includes joint efforts to develop new hardware and software systems as well as collaborations that promote quantum computing across various industries.

Report Scope

Report Attribute Details
The market size value in 2022 USD 10.13 Bn
Revenue forecast by 2032 USD 234.6 Bn
Growth Rate CAGR Of 36.89%
Regions Covered North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa, and the Rest of the World
Historical Years 2017-2022
Base Year 2022
Estimated Year 2023
Short-Term Projection Year 2028
Long-Term Projected Year 2032

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FAQ.

What is quantum computing?

Quantum computing is a type of processing data using quantum mechanics. It relies on principles such as superposition, entanglement, and interference which enable quantum computers to perform calculations that would be impossible with classical computers.

What are some potential applications of quantum computing?

Quantum computing holds great promise for revolutionizing industries such as drug discovery, finance, energy, and logistics. Potential uses include creating new drugs and materials, optimizing supply chains and logistics networks, and even improving weather forecasting models with greater precision.

What are some of the challenges facing the quantum computing market?

The quantum computing market faces numerous obstacles, such as technical difficulties in building and running large-scale quantum computers, high costs associated with quantum computing hardware, a scarcity of highly qualified quantum experts, and an absence of practical applications developed and deployed.

Who are some of the major players in the quantum computing market?

Major companies operating within this space include IBM, Google, Microsoft, Honeywell, Intel, and Rigetti Computing. These firms are actively developing and commercializing quantum computing hardware and software systems.

What is the outlook for the quantum computing market?

Overall, analysts anticipate a bright future for quantum computing, with continued investment and innovation anticipated in the coming years. Though still in its early stages of development, its potential advantages are immense - leading to rapid industry growth over the coming years.

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The team behind market.us, marketresearch.biz, market.biz and more. Our purpose is to keep our customers ahead of the game with regard to the markets. They may fluctuate up or down, but we will help you to stay ahead of the curve in these market fluctuations. Our consistent growth and ability to deliver in-depth analyses and market insight has engaged genuine market players. They have faith in us to offer the data and information they require to make balanced and decisive marketing decisions.

What fields can quantum computers advance?

Quantum computing can solve impossible problems, speed up machine learning, and aid in solving climate change and discovering new drugs.

What advantages do quantum computers have over conventional computers?

extremely fast calculations
extremely complex calculations

What fields can quantum computers advance?

AI
drug manufacturing
climate change solutions

Quantum computing is still in its early stages and faces significant technical challenges.

Title:

Content: The quantum leap: Quantum computing breakthroughs to watch

The classical computer has been the bedrock of computing for over 50 years. That’s going to change soon. quantum computing, which was once a concept limited to fringe scientific papers, is now becoming a mainstream topic.

We’re seeing significant breakthroughs in the headlines which are stoking the flames of conjecture. The truth is, that this technology will bring with it much more than hype and opportunities to breathe life into sci-fi creations. In this article, we’re going to dive into some of the milestones of quantum computing, future goals and, of course, the challenges that we still have to overcome.

The Quantum Paradigm

Classical computers began as room-sized machines. Computer scientists from the 1950s would be completely flummoxed to see the powerful gaming or AI training rigs of today. That said, computers process information using bits -- either a 0 or a 1. quantum computers break the mold by using quantum bits, or qubits. They’re built upon the principles of quantum mechanics, which allow us to conceptualize that a qubit can exist in a state of 0, 1, or both at the same time (this is known as superposition in quantum theory).

As a result of this state, quantum computers are able to measure vast quantities of possibilities at the same time and exponentially increase their computing power compared to classical machines.

Significant Milestones in Quantum Computing

As with everything groundbreaking, quantum computing has been the subject of much fanfare, which has caused tangible advancements to slip through the cracks. This includes:

The Rise of Quantum Supremacy

The idea of "quantum supremacy" once seemed rather farfetched. That was until Google demonstrated with its Sycamore processor exactly what quantum machines could do. Sycamore was given a calculation that would have taken a classical computer 10,000 years to complete. It completed it in 200 seconds. quantum supremacy is now a modern reality and not just a hypothesis.

Innovations in Quantum Error-Correction

The inherently fragile nature of qubits means they're prone to errors from even the smallest environmental interference. Over the years, researchers have been laser-focused on tackling this problem, giving rise to various quantum error-correction protocols. Among the most prominent are the "surface code" and "cat code" methods, which deploy specialized qubit arrangements and extra layers of computational checks to detect and correct errors in real time.

Development of Quantum Algorithms

Unsurprisingly, with the growth of quantum processors has come an increase in quantum algorithms being developed. Algorithms like Shor's (for integer factorization) and Grover's (for database searching) have proven quantum computing's superiority over classical methods.

quantum algorithms have more granular applications as well, especially for devs and larger organizations. They could drastically reduce the time it takes to render documents in a React PDF viewer, particularly those that are large or contain complex elements like high-resolution images or intricate designs. Imagine one day sending petabytes of multimedia files without delay.

In a fraction of a second, teams could edit, compare, and merge files, all on their native platform, without having to wait until all the documentation is ready for analysis or sending.

This is just a microcosm of how massive quality-of-life (QoL) improvements from quantum computing will actually be. Aside from document readers, artists will also be able to render entire films in a matter of seconds, as there will be no resolution too high to be processed instantly. The same goes for 4K video calls without lags, VR gaming, and so much more.

Quantum Potential

What makes quantum computers so powerful is their ability to solve the problems that have simply been out of reach for classical machines, This includes:

  • Cryptography: Certain mathematical problems (like factorizing large prime numbers) are difficult for modern classical computers. quantum computers, however, are able to solve these problems much faster due to their parallel processing capabilities. Modern digital security rests on the assumption that these problems prevent computers from solving them quickly, and so quantum computing will be incredibly disruptive to modern cryptography. "Revolutionary" won’t even begin to define it.
  • Drug Discovery and Material Science: Another difficult task for classical computers is simulating and understanding complex molecular structures. With quantum computing, molecular simulations will be turbo-charged and lead to important breakthroughs in medicine and material science at a blistering pace.
  • Optimization Challenges: Be it traffic management, financial modeling, or supply chain optimization, problems involving multiple variables and constraints could benefit immensely from quantum computing's prowess, resulting in more efficient and optimal solutions.
  • Machine Learning and Big Data: Data is the new oil. And companies everywhere are drilling. quantum computers can process and analyze vast datasets swiftly and can send machine learning models to the stratosphere. This will lead to more accurate predictions and insights.

Navigating Quantum Challenges

The dream of a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer is still just a dream for now, due to certain technical hurdles.

The first is maintaining the quantum state of qubits over extended durations. The term for this is ‘quantum coherence’, and it is not an easy task. External disturbances such as cosmic rays or nearby electronic devices can disrupt its state and prevent long computations.

Of course, one must also ponder about scalability. Scaling from a few qubits to thousands or even millions which are needed for more complex tasks will need further innovations in quantum error correction (and system architecture for that matter).

For now, computer scientists have gotten around this by using extremely low temperatures to maintain qubit stability, but this is not something companies or organizations without vast resources can accomplish.

Another aspect to consider is the software ecosystem. quantum computers will need their own kind of software, along with unique programming languages and tools. This will take years and possibly decades of collaboration between physicists, computer scientists, and industry stakeholders before a barebones system is achieved. QApplications in Diverse Domains

quantum computing is going to massively change many sectors. That said, some stand to benefit sooner than the rest:

  • Financial Modeling: The financial sector is an obvious winner when it comes to having more computing power -- the sector is already using AI to its advantage. quantum algorithms will allow traders and analysts to evaluate vast numbers of scenarios extremely quickly, giving those companies with quantum machines an extraordinary advantage.
  • Climate Modeling: Predicting the Earth’s climate involves accounting for a ton of variables and how they interact with each other. quantum computers will allow more accurate climate models and better insights into climate change which will hopefully help us develop better strategies for mitigating it.
  • Logistics and Supply Chain: Efficient solutions to the traveling salesman problem -- a challenge that involves finding the shortest possible route through multiple cities -- could revolutionize logistics, saving time and reducing costs for businesses worldwide.

The Interplay Between Quantum and Classical Systems

While you may think that quantum computers will eventually replace classical computers, the truth is the future more likely has them together in a symbiotic relationship. This is because quantum machines will be used for tasks they’re better at, namely more advanced computational needs, while classical computers will be kept for more routine tasks and for user interfaces. An example of this already exists in cloud-based quantum computing platforms -- where users can send a certain task to a quantum machine and receive the result through their own classical machine.

Looking Towards the Quantum Future

The next decade promises a slew of breakthroughs. Today’s quantum computers are being compared to the classical computers of the 1950s, which is probably accurate considering they’re still in their nascent stage of development and haven’t even begun realizing their full potential.

quantum computing promises an increase in computation power for sure, but it offers much more than that. It promises a massive shift across many industries -- from healthcare to finance, energy and transportation. We live in exciting times as we stand on the precipice of a new era in technology, one that previously only belonged to the pages of science fiction.

Image credit: plotplot/Shutterstock

Lee Li is a project manager and B2B copywriter with a decade of experience in the Chinese fintech startup space as a PM for TaoBao, MeitTuan, and DouYin (now TikTok).

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What are the challenges in quantum computing research?

only small quantum computers available
high error rates
sensitivity to environment

Error correction is a major challenge in quantum computing, with researchers developing techniques to reduce errors.

Title:

Content: How big does your quantum computer need to be?

Quantum computers are expected to be disruptive and potentially impact many industry sectors. So researchers in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands decided to explore two very different quantum problems: breaking the encryption of Bitcoin (a digital currency) and simulating the molecule responsible for biological nitrogen fixation.

In AVS Quantum Science, from AIP Publishing, the researchers describe a tool they created to determine how big a quantum computer needs to be to solve problems like these and how long it will take.

“The majority of existing work within this realm focuses on a particular hardware platform, superconducting devices, like those IBM and Google are working toward,” said Mark Webber, of the University of Sussex. “Different hardware platforms will vary greatly on key hardware specifications, such as the rate of operations and the quality of control on the qubits (quantum bits).”

Many of the most promising quantum advantage use cases will require an error-corrected quantum computer. Error correction enables running longer algorithms by compensating for inherent errors inside the quantum computer, but it comes at the cost of more physical qubits.

Pulling nitrogen out of the air to make ammonia for fertilizers is extremely energy-intensive, and improvements to the process could impact both world food scarcity and the climate crisis. Simulation of relevant molecules is currently beyond the abilities of even the world’s fastest supercomputers but should be within the reach of next-gen quantum computers.

“Our tool automates the calculation of the error-correction overhead as a function of key hardware specifications,” Webber said. “To make the quantum algorithm run faster, we can perform more operations in parallel by adding more physical qubits. We introduce extra qubits as needed to reach the desired runtime, which is critically dependent on the rate of operations at the physical hardware level.”

Most quantum computing hardware platforms are limited, because only qubits right next to each other can interact directly. In other platforms, such as some trapped ion designs, the qubits are not in fixed positions and can instead be physically moved around — meaning each qubit can interact directly with a wide set of other qubits.

“We explored how to best take advantage of this ability to connect distant qubits, with the aim of solving problems in less time with fewer qubits,” said Webber. “We must continue to tailor the error-correction strategies to exploit the strengths of the underlying hardware, which may allow us to solve highly impactful problems with a smaller-size quantum computer than had previously been assumed.”

Quantum computers are exponentially more powerful at breaking many encryption techniques than classical computers. The world uses RSA encryption for most of its secure communication. RSA encryption and the one Bitcoin uses (elliptic curve digital signature algorithm) will one day be vulnerable to a quantum computing attack, but today, even the largest supercomputer could never pose a serious threat.

The researchers estimated the size a quantum computer needs to be to break the encryption of the Bitcoin network within the small window of time it would actually pose a threat to do so — in between its announcement and integration into the blockchain. The greater the fee paid on the transaction, the shorter this window will be, but it likely ranges from minutes to hours.

“State-of-the-art quantum computers today only have 50-100 qubits,” said Webber. “Our estimated requirement of 30 [million] to 300 million physical qubits suggests Bitcoin should be considered safe from a quantum attack for now, but devices of this size are generally considered achievable, and future advancements may bring the requirements down further.

“The Bitcoin network could perform a ‘hard-fork’ onto a quantum-secure encryption technique, but this may result in network scaling issues due to an increased memory requirement.”

The researchers emphasize the rate of improvement of both quantum algorithms and error- correction protocols.

“Four years ago, we estimated a trapped ion device would need a billion physical qubits to break RSA encryption, requiring a device with an area of 100-by-100 square meters,” said Webber. “Now, with improvements across the board, this could see a dramatic reduction to an area of just 2.5-by-2.5 square meters.”

A large-scale error-corrected quantum computer should be able to solve important problems classical computers cannot.

“Simulating molecules has applications for energy efficiency, batteries, improved catalysts, new materials, and the development of new medicines,” said Webber. “Further applications exist across the board — including for finance, big data analysis, fluid flow for airplane designs, and logistical optimizations.” The article “The impact of hardware specifications on reaching quantum advantage in the fault tolerant regime” is authored by Mark Webber, Vincent Elfving, Sebastian Weidt, and Winifried K. Hensinger. It will appear in AVS Quantum Science on Jan. 25, 2022 (DOI: 10.1116/5.0073075). After that date, it can be accessed at https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1116/5.0073075.

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What are the challenges in quantum computing research?

The quantum computing market is expected to reach USD 234.06 billion by 2032.

IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Honeywell are dominating the quantum computing market.

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

Countries like the US, China, and the UK are making significant advancements in quantum computing research.

Quantum computing development is a global effort to advance the field and address its limitations.

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The Silent Quantum Threat To Web3 Cyber Resilience

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If you are worried about DeFi’s war with cyber-hackers and the cyber-marauders at the gates of Web3, take a deep breath. Quantum computing is coming and could render today’s digital cryptography used in DeFi and Web3 useless.

The emerging generation of quantum computers currently under development will have the potential to hack Web3, very quickly. The cybersecurity and financial consequences of this could be unprecedented. The solutions are not straightforward and forthcoming and require complex work and most importantly, community consensus.

The Next Generation Of Computing - Quantum

Quantum computing is the next generation of computing machines and techniques that are very different from current computers, known in the jargon as classical computers. Quantum computers are more powerful for certain calculations. This means that calculations that would take thousands of years on today’s supercomputers are accomplished instantly by quantum ones.

Amongst these calculations are very useful applications like simulating drugs and their effect in organisms over time avoiding lab tests, financial forecasting and better predicting market behaviors to better avoid crisis, and many innovations across business and society.

Nevertheless, the most attractive application to cyber-criminals and the most concerning to society, is the capacity of these computers to hack the current cryptography of the Internet, telecommunications, and blockchain networks, jeopardizing our Web3 identities, digital assets, and their stores of value.

What Makes Quantum Computers So Different And Powerful?

Today’s classical computers are binary because their basic units of information are bits which can be either in a 0 or 1 value. The equivalent in quantum computing is quantum bits, or qubits, a basic unit of information. Qubits leverage two phenomena from quantum physics: entanglement, and superposition, and are used to do parallel computing exponentially faster than a classical binary computer.

For calculations that can be modelled, 50 computations on a quantum computer could achieve a result that would require a staggeringly large number of computations, 1,125,899,906,842,624 on any of today’s computers and at a millennium’s pace (N2^N=2^50) for all of you math enthusiasts.

Web3 is an emerging concept that assembles different constituent technologies, protocols, and principles. One of these principles is the use of RDF, OWL, XLM and other languages and protocols to enable a machine-readable web suitable for AI, which was defined as the “Semantic Web” over two decades ago by Tim Berners-Lee, the Web’s founding father.

A big constituent of Web3 is the use of blockchain technology for decentralized and trusted peer-to-peer interactions and value exchanges. Digital wallets as personal, private, and portable key, data, and asset management tools are a key constituent to using the blockchain. Different combinations of these technologies, protocols, and principles are being used by a new generation of applications and platforms, which together are the main constituents to Web3.

Among the most popular use cases emerging in the world of Web3 commerce are cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, DeFi, DAO’s, and NFT’s. Soon we will be using different forms of tokenized money including central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and we will be trading and investing in tokenized real-world assets like real estate, gold, and automobiles in real time – amongst all sorts of other things – everything that can be tokenized will be tokenized in Web3.

We will be able to own and present ourselves from our digital wallets with our “digital ID”, driver’s license, health records and certificates, and diplomas which will be verifiable against secure blockchain networks. Many Web3 applications use blockchain networks as an additional layer of the Internet protocol, something which Berners-Lee is less enthusiastic about.

Blockchain networks allow for cryptographic proofs of off-chain data and information, like real estate, to be immutably recorded and universally verifiable, making use cases compelling for government and business registries. Blockchain technology also allows for assets and value to be represented by on-chain tokens so they can be traded against each other or against any form or tokenized money eliminating any post-trade settlement and clearing process.

Blockchain Technology – The Weakest Link With Quantum Computing?

As appealing as it all sounds, blockchain networks are today possibly the most vulnerable technology to attacks by quantum computers. In 2016, the National Institute for Standards in Technology (NIST) and the National Security Agency (NSA) began to warn about the seriousness of the quantum threat.

NIST warns, “If large-scale quantum computers are ever built, they will be able to break many of the public-key cryptosystems currently in use.”

“A sufficiently large quantum computer, if built, would be capable of undermining all widely-deployed public key algorithms used for key establishment and digital signatures,” echoes the NSA.

Public-key cryptosystems and algorithms referred to by NIST and NSA are essentially the mechanisms that we use to encrypt our telecommunications over the phone or the Internet and to control our assets in blockchain networks.

In simple terms, when we send any communication over the Internet such as an email, a transaction from our wallet to a node, or a communication between nodes, we are encrypting the information with the recipient’s public key so the recipient can decrypt it with their private key. Similarly, when we send a transaction to a blockchain we sign it with our private key, so we can for instance, prove that we are the owner of certain amount of bitcoin we want to transfer.

Marcos Allende Lopez, CTO of LACNet, says, “What NIST and NSA warnings reflect is that quantum computers can discover any of those private keys from our public keys. Most prominent blockchain networks, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, rely on an Elliptic Curve public-key algorithm. This algorithm, as well as others such as RSA and Discrete Logarithm frequently used to encrypt communications over the Internet, are already proven to be breakable by quantum computers.

Allende is a quantum physicist who leads the technical work in blockchain, Web3, and quantum technologies at the Inter-American Development Bank and has designed and piloted an implementation of a quantum-resistant blockchain. Addressing the delegates and the Necker Blockchain Summit this summer, Allende warned, “If quantum hacking has not happened already is only because quantum computers are not large enough yet.”

In 2013, Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, pitched, “If you have bitcoins in an address you never use they are safe, otherwise, anyone can steal them.”

This happens when someone makes a transaction, and their public key is exposed to the entire network. However, in July at the Eth 2.0 conference, Butterin admitted that, not only is there not a plan or roadmap for Ethereum to become quantum-resistant, but that the solution is not even know yet and the problem is being postponed to solve more urgent matters such as scalability, interoperability, or costs until quantum computers are ready.

The New Quantum Digital Space Race

Since 2000, private and public entities have competed in a race to develop quantum computers that could scale. At present, IBM leads the race with 127 qubits, however, the number of qubits for breaking current cryptography and being relevant for other disruptive applications is estimated to be in the order of thousands, and at least between 1,000 and 3,000, or more.

Current implementations do not achieve “error correction”, meaning that errors are propagated without the control that is necessary to scale, however, many experts predict quantum computing at scale is just around the corner.

China has invested as much as $11 billion in quantum between 2019 and 2021 followed by $5 billion by the E.U. and $3 billion by the U.S. Every global superpower understands that this may be the next most valuable technology on the road to digital dominance.

The truth is that the quantum threat is in general not well understood in the Web3 world, and the solutions are very complex to implement. Replacing current cryptographic algorithms with one of the new quantum-resistant public-key algorithms that NIST has recently standardized in July 2022 would be almost impossible.

Alternatively, adding a quantum-resistant signature into every transaction might be more feasible but requires consensus, is technically difficult to implement, and could have very negative consequences such as reducing processing throughput, considerably.

“As difficult as it might seem, the time to act is now. By using blockchain technology we are already exposed to the hack today, crack tomorrow practice,” asserts Allende in an industry call to action.

Being realistic, are we really expecting those that achieve building large quantum computers to disclose their projects and users? A strategist might posit that cyber-criminals will silently use quantum computing to strategically hack communications and assets without being noticed as a quantum computer. It is not an enigma to find out cases when this has happened in the past.

As devotees of the Netflix series Game of Thrones know, “winter is coming.” When is the right time to start making Web3 quantum cyber-resilient if not now? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

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Quantum computing may revolutionize industries like healthcare, finance, and logistics, with companies already exploring its applications.

What fields can quantum computers advance?

Quantum computing can optimize traffic management and process vast machine learning datasets.

What advantages do quantum computers have over conventional computers?

extremely fast calculations
extremely complex calculations

What fields can quantum computers advance?

Companies like Google and IBM are developing more robust and scalable quantum processors to overcome coherence hurdles.

What are important areas in quantum research?

What are the challenges in quantum computing research?

What companies are leading in developing quantum computing?

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

Quantum computers can simulate protein behavior and design secure communication systems.

Title:

Content: Quantum superiority.
How are the latest supercomputers and what does Schrödinger ’ s cat have to do with it?
Why quantum computers perform better than classical computers, how complex problems they are able to solve and when we will use their services.
It all began back in 1900, when the German theoretical physicist Max Planck made the assumption: energy is absorbed not continuously, but in parts.
These parts he called quanta (from the Latin quantum - "how many").
And then it happened: his hypothesis became the basis for the discoveries made by Einstein, Bohr, Rutherford, Schrödinger and other physicists, some of whom received Nobel prizes.
It may be hard to believe, but the incomprehensible and inexplicable quantum physics has found practical application.
Every time you pick up a flash drive or CD, think about it.
But flash drives and disks did not satisfy the researchers, so they decided to "cross" quantum physics and computer computing.
The result is a mysterious device with many tubes, prisms, mirrors, lasers, but without a monitor – a quantum computer.
As practice has recently shown, a quantum processor (the “brain ” of a computer) is able to cope with a task in an hour, which would take eight years for a supercomputer the size of a hangar.
Such results were achieved by scientists from the Chinese University of Science and Technology in Shanghai.
The prospects for these devices are the most bright: engineers dream that in a matter of minutes quantum PCs will be able to create the most perfect cipher and permanently stop hacker attacks, accelerate the development of artificial intelligence systems, conduct calculations for pharmacists who will help in the creation of effective and safe drugs.
But that's a long way off.
At this stage, scientists are fighting to prove to the world that quantum computers are capable of surpassing classical analogues.
How a quantum computer is made
All computing equipment, including PCs, operates on the basis of a binary system consisting of 0 and 1 (they are commonly called bits).
The use of these two symbols made it easier and cheaper to manufacture chips - the "brains" of a computer.
When a computational process occurs, the microswitches that the chip is equipped with either conduct current or do not.
That is, they constantly switch from 0 to 1 and back.
Thus, they can be in one of the states - "on" or "off", 0 or 1.
The operation of the quantum chip is based on a different system consisting not only of 0 and 1, but also of intermediate values and their combinations, so that the switches of the chip occupy a position between 0 and 1 or can be in the position of 0 and 1 at the same time.
Here it is worth remembering Schrödinger ’ s cat, which, according to the terms of the thought experiment, can be both alive and dead at the same time.
The same thing happens with quantum bits (qubits).
So what's the point?
It turns out that while the PC is thinking about specific answers, the quantum analogue is guessing at the qubit thickness?
A quantum computer does produce results in terms of probability, but its appeal is different.
Memory in qubits: without end and beginning
For computing, an important parameter is memory.
Classic devices are designed so that at some point their program works with some memory cell, which limits the capabilities of the device.
A quantum computer is able to simultaneously work with all memory cells, due to the "variability" of qubits described above.
Physicists argue that, theoretically, qubits can have an infinite amount of memory.
"In quantum computers, qubits are probably in a state of 0 or 1.
Probability is a number.
To write this number as accurately as possible, you need an infinite number of zeros and ones.
Therefore, in theory, 1 qubit is a physical system with an infinite amount of memory, ” explains physicist Anatoly Dymarsky in his report.
Who is not shocked by quantum theory, he did not understand it
Danish theoretical physicist and public figure
Niels Bohr
However, there is no method to make an accurate measurement and to make the proposed accurate record in practice.
Therefore, the amount of quantum memory is still limited, but still impressive.
The scientist gives an example.
So, the memory of your laptop is 15 qubits, a supercomputer has a memory equal to 40 qubits, but 60 qubits can fit all the memory of all the computing centers of the world combined.
It is in the colossal capacity of qubits that all the charm of quantum computing consists.
The third time: how to find the best solution
But back to the mathematical abilities of such a computer.
At first glance, it seems useless in terms of calculations: while a supercomputer gives a clear and specific answer, the quantum analogue is scattered with a lot of options.
Who can do this to?
Believe me, many.
So, being in the position of Schrödinger's cat, the quantum system calculates all possible solutions to problems, looks for the most optimal of them and offers the best as the most suitable.
By getting a pool of correct answers, we can check how correct they are.
If the answers were incorrect, it is worth doing the calculations again.
In the end, three restarts will be enough to get the perfect answer.
Quantum "entanglement": what are the disadvantages of the system
Oddly enough, the more memory a quantum computer has, the more difficult it is to work with it.
So in qubits, his strength and weakness are at the same time.
The fact is that with the increase in the number of quantum bits and, therefore, memory, the system becomes more complicated and it becomes more difficult to maintain in an isolated state, and this is a prerequisite, otherwise nothing will work.
The time parameter is also important: the longer you operate the system, the more unstable it becomes.
In an unstable state, the probability of its interaction with the environment increases, and if this happens, the cells of quantum memory will collapse and turn into noise.
It is for this reason that scientists limit the number of operations with qubits.
This poses a major challenge to the development of quantum computing.
But there are also moves.
University of Sydney student Pablo Bonilla Ataides seems to have found a way to reduce the sensitivity of qubits to the environment.
Most scientists dealing with this problem eliminate noise by cooling the device to extremely low temperatures.
But not in all cases the method is effective.
Ataides proposes to correct errors by switching the states of qubits so that their position during interference is the most optimal.
Who Has Achieved Quantum Superiority
Not so long ago, IBM engineers said that they managed to experimentally prove that quantum computers are more efficient than classical ones.
In their work, the scientists investigated "computations in a confined space", allowing to demonstrate the fundamental advantage of calculations with qubits over classical bits.
Researchers have mathematically proved that there are problems that a classical computer cannot calculate, since it is limited to only one and zero, but a quantum computer can cope with them.
On the theory, scientists did not stop and conducted an experiment, with the participation of an imperfect ("noisy") quantum computer and a classical one.
To solve the problem, an ordinary computer used an electrical circuit with one logic element with two inputs and one register (bit) to store intermediate results.
The quantum circuit was built on four qubits, three of which encoded the incoming signal, and the fourth stored the intermediate result.
Important
Magical graphene: scientists have brought quantum electronics to a new level
Each of the systems received data, processed and gave the result.
A normal computer would get zeros and ones.
If there were more zeros than ones, he should have given the answer "0".
If there were more units, the correct answer was "1".
As a result, the classical computer gave the correct result in 87.5% of cases, while the quantum analogue succeeded in 93% of cases.
The test shows that quantum computers, even noisy ones, are more powerful computing tools.
Where and how we can apply quantum computing
The scope of No1 is cryptography.
A quantum computer will be able to design a communication system that is not afraid of hacking or listening.
The fact is that quantum cryptography is not based on the rules of mathematics, but on the rules of physics.
This means that information is transferred through communication channels not in the form of a digital code, but with the help of quantum mechanics objects with physical means.
Such objects can be electrons in an electric current or photons in fiber-optic communication lines.
If someone wants to listen to your conversation, which you are conducting with the help of a quantum smartphone, you will immediately know about it.
The system will record third-party noises indicating that a third party is destroying the original signals in an attempt to wedge in.
Quantum computing will be used in pharmacy, logistics, energy and the design of artificial intelligence systems
Quantum computing will also be used in bioengineering, for example, to model DNA molecules.
They can also be useful to pharmacologists in the development of drugs, because when calculating proteins are considered as microscopic quantum objects.
They, like qubits, accept a variety of states, and therefore a quantum computer can most accurately simulate their behavior.
Qubits will also help to understand how atoms of certain substances interact, and to model a new material.
Perhaps scientists will be able to easily and simply come up with a “new graphene ”.
Important
Proven in practice: quantum computers have finally surpassed classical PCs
Machine learning algorithms, on which any AI system is based, require remarkable computing power, which a quantum computing device can best cope with.
Such industries, where you need to simultaneously solve many problems, also require the effectiveness of quantum computing.
These include transport systems, logistics, energy.
Finally, with the advent of more and more devices, the era of the quantum Internet will come, a prototype of which is already being developed in the Netherlands.

What advantages do quantum computers have over conventional computers?

What fields can quantum computers advance?

Companies like IBM and Google are making progress in developing more advanced quantum processors.

What are important areas in quantum research?

What companies are leading in developing quantum computing?

What countries and blocs are leading in developing quantum computing?

What have been the landmark achievements in quantum computing?

IBM's world's first integrated quantum computing system, IBM Quantum System One

Google's Sycamore quantum supremacy experiment

What seminal quantum computers/ processors have been developed?

IBM's 65-qubit Hummingbird
20-qubit "IBM Q System One"

Quantum computing can improve financial modeling, risk assessment, personalized medicine, and genomics data analysis.

Title:

Content: Interview with Dr. Yu Longwu: Looking forward to the future development of artificial intelligence and quantum computing
Social Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Future Prospects
Renowned artificial intelligence and quantum computing expert Dr. Yu Longwu shared his insights on the future development of artificial intelligence.
Dr. Yu Longwu pointed out that 2023 is a brilliant year for generative artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT, and looking forward to 2024, artificial intelligence technology will continue to show several important trends.
I encourage young researchers and students to remain curious and inquisitive, to focus on basic learning, to develop interdisciplinary thinking skills, to focus on teamwork and communication skills, and to have a sense of social responsibility.
— Yu Longwu
SAN DIEGO, CA, USA, June 27, 2024 / EINPresswire.com / -- Interview with Mr. Yu Longwu, a North American headline and a scholar in the field of artificial intelligence.
In the latest interview, Dr. Yu Longwu, a well-known artificial intelligence and quantum computing expert, shared his insights on the future development of artificial intelligence.
Dr. Yu Longwu pointed out that 2023 is a brilliant year for generative artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT, and looking forward to 2024, artificial intelligence technology will continue to show several important trends.
Artificial Intelligence Big Model Towards General Artificial Intelligence
Dr. Yu Longwu first mentioned that the AI model will gradually move towards general artificial intelligence.
The large model represented by ChatGPT demonstrates its powerful natural language processing capabilities, but the next generation aims to achieve general artificial intelligence.
Dr. Yu Longwu revealed that OpenAI is training the next generation of artificial intelligence, tentatively named "Q *".
To his knowledge, this generation of AI is being trained “from scratch ” for the first time, with intelligence that does not rely on data from human activity and has the ability to modify its own code to accommodate more complex learning tasks.
Although "Q *" can only solve the mathematics problem of primary school difficulty at present, its future potential cannot be underestimated.
Interview with Dr. Yu Longwu: Looking forward to the future development of artificial intelligence and quantum computing
He said: "General AI is not limited to certain specific tasks, but is capable of solving a wide range of scientific and technical problems.
For example, OpenAI is training the next generation of AI, tentatively named ‘ Q * ’.
This marks a new milestone, "he said.
Synthetic data breaks training data bottlenecks
Dr. Yu Longwu pointed out that synthetic data will play an important role in the development of artificial intelligence in the future.
Data bottlenecks have been one of the main factors limiting the development of AI, and synthetic data can provide a large amount of high-quality data to alleviate this bottleneck.
In addition, synthetic data helps to resolve data privacy and security issues and reduce legal disputes.
He explains: “Synthetic data is data generated by machine learning models that mimic real data.
Its advantage lies in providing a large amount of high-quality data and solving the problem of insufficient existing data.
In addition, synthetic data can solve data privacy and security issues and avoid legal disputes. ”
The application of quantum computing in artificial intelligence | Dr. Yu Longwu
Dr. Yu Longwu is optimistic about the application of quantum computers in the field of artificial intelligence.
Quantum computers have powerful parallel computing capabilities, which can greatly improve the computing power of artificial intelligence.
With the continuous progress of quantum computing technology, quantum computing is expected to become the key to solving the bottleneck of AI computing power.
He pointed out: "The parallel computing power of quantum computers gives them a significant advantage in solving complex computational problems.
For example, in machine learning, many algorithms need to do a lot of matrix operations and optimization problems, and quantum computing can greatly speed up these processes. ”
Interview with Dr. Yu Longwu: Looking forward to the future development of artificial intelligence and quantum computing
Self-supervised learning and multi-modal learning
Dr. Yu also mentioned that technologies such as self-supervised learning, multi-modal learning and edge computing will play an important role in the development of artificial intelligence in the future.
Self-supervised learning can reduce dependence on labeled data by training with unlabeled data; multi-modal learning can process and integrate data from different sources; and edge computing can handle real-time processing where the data is generated, reducing latency and improving efficiency.
He said: "By using unlabeled data for training, self-supervised learning can greatly reduce the dependence on labeled data and improve the training efficiency."
Multi-modal learning, which can process and integrate data from different sources, will greatly expand the scope of AI applications. ”
Future challenges and responses
Despite the bright prospects, Dr. Yu also reminds us to be cautious about the challenges ahead.
He pointed out that the development of artificial intelligence is not without resistance and problems.
The first is technical bottlenecks and resource constraints.
The training and operation of large-scale models requires a lot of computing resources and electricity, which is a huge burden on the environment and the economy.
In addition, data privacy and security issues remain serious.
AI systems need a lot of data to train, which often contains sensitive information and personal privacy, and how to protect this data is a major challenge.
"We must develop and implement effective laws and policies to ensure that the development of AI is ethical and ethical and prevents misuse and malicious use," he said.
Interview with Dr. Yu Longwu: Looking forward to the future development of artificial intelligence and quantum computing
The integration of quantum computing and artificial intelligence
The application prospect of quantum computing in artificial intelligence
When talking about the integration of quantum computing and artificial intelligence, Dr. Yu Longwu showed great enthusiasm.
He pointed out that the application prospect of quantum computing in artificial intelligence is very broad.
First, the parallel computing power of quantum computers gives them a significant advantage in solving complex computational problems, such as in machine learning, where many algorithms need to perform a large number of matrix operations and optimization problems, and quantum computing can greatly speed up these processes.
"Quantum computers are capable of dealing with problems that classical computers cannot solve, such as cracking complex encryption algorithms, simulating the quantum behavior of molecules and materials, and solving complex optimization problems," he said.
Quantum machine learning
Dr. Yu also stressed that the combination of quantum computing and artificial intelligence can improve the training efficiency of AI models.
Quantum machine learning algorithms can run on a quantum computer, speeding up the model training process and improving the training accuracy.
Especially for deep learning, which requires a lot of computational resources, this will bring significant improvements.
He said: "Quantum machine learning algorithms can run on a quantum computer, speeding up the model training process and improving the training accuracy.
This is especially important for deep learning, which requires a lot of computational resources. ”
Challenges Faced
Dr. Yu Longwu also pointed out that at present, quantum computing still faces many challenges in practical applications, such as the limitation of quantum bits, the problem of quantum error correction, the development of quantum algorithms and the limitation of hardware technology.
Nevertheless, he is confident in the future of quantum computing, believing that as technology continues to advance, quantum computing will play an increasingly important role in the development of artificial intelligence.
"Despite these challenges, I believe that with the continuous advancement of technology, quantum computing will certainly play an increasingly important role in promoting the development of artificial intelligence in the future," he said.
Collaboration between quantum computing and traditional computing
Dr. Yu Longwu believes that in the future, quantum computers will not completely replace traditional computers, but the two will develop together and play their respective roles.
Quantum computers have significant advantages when dealing with complex parallel computing tasks, while traditional computers still perform well when performing some simple, linear tasks.
By combining quantum computing with traditional computing, optimal computing efficiency and performance can be achieved.
"Quantum computing and traditional computing have their own strengths, and in the future the two will work together to achieve the best computing efficiency and performance," he said.
Specific Application Scenarios
In terms of specific application scenarios, Dr. Yu Longwu mentioned that quantum computing can play an important role in areas such as drug discovery, materials science, optimization problems, and financial modeling.
For example, in drug discovery, quantum computing can simulate the quantum behavior of molecules and accelerate the drug screening process; in materials science, quantum computing can help design new materials and optimize their performance; in optimization problems, quantum computing can quickly find the optimal solution and improve decision-making efficiency; in financial modeling, quantum computing can improve the accuracy of risk assessment and investment strategies.
"Quantum computing has broad application prospects in areas such as drug discovery, materials science, optimization problems, financial modeling, and can greatly enhance the level of research and application in these fields," he said.
Social Impact of Artificial Intelligence and Future Prospects
Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Society
At the end of the interview, Dr. Yu discussed the far-reaching impact of artificial intelligence on society.
He pointed out that artificial intelligence has great potential in improving productivity and quality of life.
For example, AI can be used in medical diagnostics to help doctors diagnose diseases more accurately and improve treatment effectiveness; it can be used in autonomous driving to improve traffic safety and efficiency; it can be used in smart homes to make our lives more convenient and comfortable.
In addition, artificial intelligence can also be used for scientific research, accelerating scientific discoveries, and solving some of the major challenges facing humanity, such as climate change, energy shortage and so on.
"Artificial intelligence has great potential to boost productivity and improve quality of life, and can dramatically improve efficiency and effectiveness in all areas," he said.
Challenges and Risks Faced
However, Dr. Yu also warned about the challenges posed by artificial intelligence.
He mentioned that the development of artificial intelligence may lead to the disappearance of some traditional jobs, which will lead to employment problems.
Businesses may try to hire fewer people to perform the same tasks, resulting in large numbers of workers losing their jobs.
In addition, data privacy and security issues are also important challenges for AI.
AI requires a lot of data to train and operate, which may contain personal privacy and sensitive information, and how to protect the security of this data is a major challenge.
"The development of artificial intelligence may lead to the disappearance of some traditional jobs, and companies may try to hire fewer people to perform the same tasks, which will have a knock-on effect on the job market," he said.
Ethical and Moral Issues of Artificial Intelligence
The third is the ethical issue of artificial intelligence.
Dr. Yu Longwu pointed out that the development of artificial intelligence may bring some ethical and moral issues, such as whether artificial intelligence decision-making is fair, and whether artificial intelligence will pose a threat to human beings.
How to formulate and implement effective laws and policies to ensure that the development of AI is ethical and ethical is an issue that needs to be studied and explored in depth.
"The development of artificial intelligence raises a number of ethical and ethical issues, and we have to make sure that the development of artificial intelligence is ethical and ethical," he said.
Future outlook
Dr. Yu Longwu is full of expectations for the future development of artificial intelligence.
He hopes that AI can play a role in more fields, solve more practical problems, and make greater breakthroughs in intelligence and autonomy.
At the same time, he stressed that the development of artificial intelligence must be safe and controllable, and a sound artificial intelligence governance system needs to be established to ensure that it does not pose a threat to human society.
"I hope that AI can play a role in more areas, solve more practical problems, and at the same time ensure that the development of AI is safe and controllable," he said.
Advice for young researchers and students
Finally, Dr. Yu Longwu put forward several suggestions for young researchers and students.
He encouraged them to maintain their curiosity and spirit of exploration, focus on basic knowledge learning, develop interdisciplinary thinking skills, focus on teamwork and communication skills, and have a sense of social responsibility.
He believes that the younger generation of researchers will play an important role in the development of artificial intelligence in the future, bringing more benefits to human society.
"I encourage young researchers and students to remain curious and inquisitive, focus on basic learning, develop interdisciplinary thinking skills, focus on teamwork and communication skills, and be socially responsible," he said.
Summing up
In this in-depth interview, Dr. Yu Longwu painted a blueprint for the future of artificial intelligence and quantum computing for us.
His insights not only reveal the current direction of technology, but also provide us with ideas and ways to meet the challenges of the future.
With the continuous advancement of technology, artificial intelligence and quantum computing will continue to drive social progress and bring a better future for mankind.
Cheng Yi
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Interview with Dr. Yu Longwu: Looking forward to the future development of artificial intelligence and quantum computing

What advantages do quantum computers have over conventional computers?

What fields can quantum computers advance?

Quantum computing can design new materials, optimize performance, and solve complex problems efficiently.

What advantages do quantum computers have over conventional computers?

extremely fast calculations
extremely complex calculations

Quantum computing is limited by its instability and error-prone nature, requiring significant advances for practical applications.

Title:

Content: The present and future of quantum computing
New Research 2022 / 12 / 13 19: 16: 07 Edited by: Yuansheng
The limitations of contemporary supercomputers, as well as their implications for academia and institutions around the world, are drawing the attention of the scientific community.
For example, researchers can use current techniques to perform more complex simulations, such as those that focus on chemistry and the reactive properties of each element.
However, as the complexity of these interactions increases, they become more challenging for current supercomputers.
Due to the limited processing power of these devices, it is nearly impossible to complete these types of calculations, forcing scientists to choose between speed and precision when conducting these studies.
To provide some context for the breadth of these experiments, let ’ s start with the example of hydrogen atom modeling.
With only one proton and one electron in hydrogen, researchers can easily perform chemical reactions manually or rely on computers to complete calculations.
However, depending on the number of atoms and whether the electrons are entangled, the process becomes more difficult.
To write out every conceivable result of an element like thulium, which contains a staggering 69 electrons, all twisted together, would take more than 20 trillion years.
Obviously, this time is too long for us, and we need a new way out.
Quantum computers open the door to a whole new world of possibilities.
The equations needed to simulate chemistry have been known to the scientific community since the 1930s, but it has only recently begun to build computers with the ability and reliability to perform these calculations.
Today ’ s quantum computers provide the speed researchers need to mimic all aspects of chemistry, making them significantly predictive and reducing the need for laboratory testing.
Colleges and universities may be able to use quantum computers to augment existing knowledge of chemistry.
Consider the potential time and cost savings that could be achieved if quantum computers were able to eliminate the need for laboratory testing during research.
Moreover, since the computational power to master chemical properties did not exist previously, this step could lead to a major step forward in chemistry previously unknown to the world
01. Quantum computing in practice
Many companies are already using quantum computing.
For example, IBM is working with Mercedes-Benz, ExxonMobil, CERN, and Mitsubishi Chemical to implement quantum computing into their products and services:
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz is exploring quantum computing to create better batteries for its electric vehicles.
The company hopes to shape the future of modern electric vehicles by implementing quantum computing in its products and making an impact on the environment by implementing quantum computing in its products in an effort to be carbon neutral by 2039.
Simulating what ’ s going on inside a battery is incredibly difficult, even with today ’ s most advanced computers.
However, using quantum computing technology, Mercedes-Benz can more accurately simulate chemical reactions in car batteries.
Exxon Mobil
ExxonMobil is using quantum algorithms to more easily discover the most efficient routes for transporting clean combustion fuels around the world.
Without quantum computing, it would be almost impossible to compute all routing combinations and find the most efficient routing combinations.
European Centre for Nuclear Research
The European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) is trying to discover the secrets of the universe.
Using quantum computing, CERN can find algorithms to pinpoint complex events in the universe in a more efficient way.
For example, quantum computing could help CERN figure out patterns in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) data.
Mitsubishi Chemical
A team from Mitsubishi Chemical and Keio University is working on a key chemical step for lithium-oxygen batteries: lithium superoxide rearrangement.
They are using quantum computers to "perform accurate simulations of what happens inside a chemical reaction at the molecular level".
Advantages and disadvantages of quantum computing
Quantum computing has the potential to revolutionize industries such as finance, pharmaceuticals, artificial intelligence, and automotive in the coming years, fundamentally changing the world around us.
The value of quantum computers comes from the probabilistic way in which they operate.
By using the probabilistic computing style directly instead of simulating it, computer scientists have shown potential applications for fast search engines, more accurate weather forecasts, and precise medical applications.
In addition, quantum computers represent the original motivation for the development of quantum computing and are very useful in directly simulating quantum mechanics.
Perhaps the main appeal of quantum computing is that it can solve problems faster, making it ideal for applications that need to handle large amounts of data (for example, aerospace logistics, drug manufacturing, molecular research, or other fields that use canonical processes at the atomic level).
However, creating a powerful quantum computer is not an easy task and involves many drawbacks.
The sensitivity of quantum computing systems to extreme temperatures is one of the main drawbacks.
In order for the system to function properly, it must be near absolute zero temperature, which poses a major engineering challenge.
Moreover, quantum bit quality is not where it needs to be.
After a given number of instructions, qubits can produce inaccurate results, and quantum computers lack error correction to solve this problem.
Because of the number of wires or lasers required to make each qubit, keeping control is difficult, especially if the goal is to create a chip with a million qubits.
And quantum computing is very expensive: the cost of a single qubit can be as high as $10,000 or so.
Finally, if standard information systems and encryption methods are used for malicious purposes, they will be overwhelmed by the processing power of quantum computers.
These computers ’ reliance on the principles of quantum physics allows them to decrypt the most secure data (e.g., bank records, government secrets, and internet / email passwords).
Cryptography experts around the world will need to develop encryption techniques that can withstand possible attacks from quantum computers.
Impact of Quantum Computing on Higher Education
The education community is always looking for new opportunities for growth and prosperity.
Many higher education institutions have begun extensive research into quantum computing, using the unique properties of quantum physics to usher in a new era of technology, including computers capable of performing currently impossible computations, ultra-secure quantum networks, and exotic new quantum materials.
Oxford University
Researchers at the University of Oxford are interested in quantum research because of its huge potential in areas such as healthcare, finance and security.
The university is recognized worldwide as a pioneer in the field of quantum science.
Oxford and York universities demonstrate first working pure state NMR quantum computer
Harvard University
Researchers at Harvard University have established a community group, the Harvard Quantum Initiative for Science and Engineering, with the goal of making significant progress in science and engineering related to quantum computers and their applications.
According to research conducted by the group, the “second quantum revolution ” will build on the first quantum revolution, which is responsible for the development of global communications, technologies such as GPS flight, and medical breakthroughs such as magnetic resonance imaging.
University of Maryland
Researchers from the University of Maryland's Department of Physics, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the Physical Sciences Laboratory are part of the Joint Quantum Institute "dedicated to the goal of controlling and utilizing quantum systems."
Institute of Technology
MIT researchers have built a quantum computer and are working on areas such as quantum algorithms and complexity, quantum information theory, measurement and control, and applications and connectivity.
University of California, Berkeley
Researchers at the Center for Quantum Computing and Information at the University of California, Berkeley are working on basic quantum algorithms, cryptography, information theory, quantum control, and experiments with quantum computers and quantum devices.
University of Chicago Quantum Exchange
Researchers at the University of Chicago Quantum Exchange are focusing on developing new ways to understand and utilize the laws of quantum mechanics. CQE encourages collaboration, joint projects and information exchange between research groups and collaborating institutions.
China University of Science and Technology
Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China are exploring quantum optics and quantum information.
Areas of major interest include quantum foundations, free space and fiber-based quantum communication, superconducting quantum computing, supercooled atomic quantum simulations, and quantum metrology theory and theory-related concepts.
One broad impact on higher education is that quantum computing will open up new careers for tomorrow ’ s students.
In addition, this technology will allow for accurate forecasting of the overall growth of the job market and the demand for skilled and knowledgeable workers in all fields.
In the near future, the power of quantum computing will be unleashed on machine learning.
In the field of education, quantum-driven algorithms will make informed decisions about student learning and deficiencies, just as quantum computing promises to revolutionize medical classification and diagnosis.
In addition, quantum computing will power a new era of individual learning, knowledge and achievement.
This will be achieved by processing large amounts of student data in a timely manner, and quantum computers may eventually have the ability to control programs designed to accommodate students ’ unique achievements and abilities, as well as backfilling specific areas where students may need help.
These aspects of quantum computing are critical to achieving the goal of truly personalized learning.
Through the cloud, you can access any of the relatively small number of physical quantum subcomputers in the world.
These computers include the 20 + IBM Quantum System One, which is currently installed more in the United States, Germany and Japan, and more are planned in the United States, South Korea and Canada.
Anyone with an internet connection can log on to a quantum computer and be educated on the basics of quantum programming.
For example, IBM offers a variety of quantum-centric education programs, including access to quantum computers, teaching support, summer schools, and hackathons.
The IBM Quantum Educator and Investigator Program and Qubit ’ s “Introduction to Quantum Computing ” are just two examples of quantum computing resources that are accessible to educators and students alike.
Such initiatives are absolutely necessary.
Colleges and universities around the world need to collaborate to bridge the current knowledge gap in quantum education and prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers.
04 、 Conclusion
The quantum computing revolution is happening.
We have just entered a new era of computing.
Next generation computing is not the next generation of hardware, but the next generation of algorithms and computing
Quantum computers use quantum mechanics principles to solve problems.
Compared to classical computers, the state of a quantum system is inherently probabilistic.
This means that quantum computers can handle many times more computations than conventional computers.
05, extended reading
The main players in quantum computing can be divided into four categories: the first category is international technology giants, such as IBM, Google, Honeywell, etc.; the second category is quantum computing startups, such as Rigetti, IonQ, etc.; the third category is national scientific research institutes, such as Fermilab, Argonne National Laboratory, and the Institute of Quantum Information and Quantum Technology Innovation. University of Cambridge, University of Science and Technology of China, Harvard University, etc.
Today's quantum computers can only deal with one or a few aspects of the problem, and they have not yet reached the level of generality.
Quantum technology companies not only need to invest heavily in developing quantum computers, but also need to have many researchers designing and manufacturing quantum hardware and software to support these machines.
In the future, general quantum computers need to work on the underlying quantum physics equipment, quantum computer architecture, quantum resource scheduling, upper quantum programming language, quantum algorithms and quantum application software.
The following are typical representatives of the quantum computing industry regarding the latest technological and commercial advances in quantum computing.
The information provided herein is for general guidance and informational purposes only, and the contents of this article should not be considered investment, business, legal or tax advice under any circumstances.
This article is from the WeChat public account: new research (ID: chuxinyanjiu), author: Yousef Fazea, compiled by: Tang Shi
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What are the challenges in quantum computing research?

high error rates
sensitivity to environment

Quantum algorithms and applications are supported by software like Q#, Qiskit, and Cirq.

Title:

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Quantum programming
Quantum programming is an emerging field in the field of computer programming that focuses on the development of algorithms and software for quantum computers.
To harness the unparalleled computational power of quantum computing systems, quantum programming combines the principles of quantum mechanics, linear algebra, and computer science to solve complex problems that are beyond the reach of classical computing architectures.
Quantum programming languages and frameworks are designed to handle qubits and facilitate the processing of quantum information, enabling revolutionary advances in areas such as cryptography, optimization, and simulation.
Unlike classical bits, which can be either 0 or 1, quantum bits can exist in multiple states simultaneously due to a phenomenon known as superposition.
This property, along with entanglement, which allows correlation between qubits in discrete quantum states, enables quantum computers to simultaneously process vast amounts of data and perform a large number of calculations in parallel.
As a result, quantum programming has the potential to radically transform many industries, from pharmaceuticals and finance to artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
In the context of programming models, quantum programming represents a distinct shift from classical deterministic and probability methods.
While traditional programming languages are designed for classical computers with binary logic gates, quantum programming languages use quantum logic gates and quantum circuits to manipulate qubit states and perform quantum operations.
These specialized languages are designed to exploit the unique characteristics of quantum computing, thus enabling developers to encrypt quantum algorithms more naturally and effectively.
Some notable examples of quantum programming languages and frameworks include Q # (a specific domain language from Microsoft), Qiskit (IBM ’ s Open Source Quantum Software Development Group), and Cirq (Google ’ s Open Source Python Framework).
These tools have been developed to facilitate the creation of quantum software that can run on both simulators and actual quantum devices, allowing programmers and researchers to explore and refine quantum algorithms without needing a deep understanding of fundamental physics.
The advent of quantum programming has also led to the emergence of classical quantum hybrid approaches, where classical and quantum computing resources are combined to solve specific problems.
A notable example is the Quantitative Approximate Optimization (QAOA) algorithm, which involves running iterative optimizations on a quantum processor followed by evaluation and modification on a classical processor.
This technology can efficiently address harmonic optimization issues, which are commonly encountered in real-world applications such as scheduling and resource allocation.
At AppMaster ’ s no-code platform, we recognize the growing importance of quantum programming in shaping the future of software development, and strive to keep ourselves abreast of relevant developments and innovations.
Although the platform currently focuses on creating traditional classic software applications, our expertise in various programming models enables us to be at the forefront of cutting-edge technologies, ensuring that our customers always have access to industry-leading solutions and services.
To help users better understand the complex field of quantum programming, extensive resources, manuals and documentation are available from academic and industry sources.
Research organizations, such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), regularly publish research papers and host conferences related to quantum programming.
Moreover, many online courses and tutorials cater to beginners and experienced developers alike, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to harness the power of quantum computing.
In short, quantum programming is a rapidly evolving field that seeks to unlock the extraordinary potential of quantum computing through the development of algorithms, languages, and software designed for quantum computers.
As a relatively nascent field, quantum programming still faces technical challenges and even ethical concerns.
However, its promise to revolutionize industries and deliver unprecedented computational capabilities ensures that it will remain an increasingly integral part of the programming landscape.
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What are important areas in quantum research?

Qiskit 1.0 is a stable release of IBM's quantum software kit with advances in qubit fabrication and error reduction.

Title:

Content: A new quantum processor, a modular quantum computer and more were unveiled at the IBM Quantum Summit, held in New York on Dec. 4. This hardware is part of IBM’s effort toward large-scale quantum computing for scientific research.

In addition, IBM announced Qiskit 1.0, which is the stable release of the open source programming software development kit for quantum circuits.

While quantum computing is often experimental and used in academic settings, it can be used in the enterprise when organizations need to solve mathematical problems too complex for classical computing, such as creating new chemical combinations in materials engineering or pharmaceuticals. Quantum key distribution and quantum cryptography can be used in cybersecurity.

Jump to:

Researchers can now access the new IBM Quantum Heron processor

IBM Quantum Heron (Figure A) is a 133-qubit quantum processor available today via the cloud. It is the successor to IBM Quantum Eagle, which came out in 2021 and established 3D packaging techniques that laid the groundwork for the company’s subsequent quantum processors.

Figure A

“Fundamentally, Heron looks a lot like Eagle — it’s the same type of qubits, the same fabrication and the same packaging technology; so most of Eagle has carried straight across; it’s really some details of the on-chip circuitry and our controls that have changed,” said Oliver Dial, CTO at IBM Quantum, in an email to TechRepublic. “One of the key breakthroughs from Eagle was the development of multi-level wiring, with the qubits sitting on a single plane, to provide flexibility for signal routing and device layout.”

IBM Quantum Heron includes advances in qubit fabrication and laminate size and a five-fold improvement in error reduction compared to IBM Quantum Eagle.

“We are firmly within the era in which quantum computers are being used as a tool to explore new frontiers of science,” said IBM SVP and Director of Research Dario Gil in a press release.

Specifically, IBM quantum processors are being used in scientific settings to simulate chemistry, physics and materials problems. The long-term goal is to expand these experiments to what IBM calls “utility scale” – in essence, to solve practical, widespread problems.

“In this context, ‘utility-scale’ means a processor with 100+ qubits, which allows the user to run calculations that are too big to be simulated on a classical computer,” Dial said. “It’s the combination of this scale and error-mitigation techniques that will allow users to derive real value from a quantum computer – hence ‘utility.’ Now that we’ve achieved utility-scale, we’re seeing people using quantum computing as a scientific tool.”

“I like to say users are using quantum computing to do quantum computing,” Gambetta wrote in a blog post on Dec. 4.

WATCH: Explore quantum computing myths and realities in this TechRepublic video

These institutions work with IBM to demonstrate research exploring large-scale quantum computing:

  • University of Tokyo.
  • Argonne National Laboratory.
  • Fundacion Ikerbasque.
  • Qedma.
  • Algorithmiq.
  • University of Washington.
  • University of Cologne.
  • Harvard University.
  • UC Berkeley.
  • Q-CTRL.

IBM Quantum System Two modular system combines classical and quantum computing

IBM Quantum System Two (Figure B) is the system behind IBM’s current quantum computing system architecture. IBM Quantum System Two combines classical and quantum computing, with a middleware layer in between to integrate the two. Scalable cryogenic infrastructure works alongside classical runtime servers with modular qubit control electronics.

IBM Quantum System Two is remarkable because it’s the first modular quantum computer built for utility-scale problems, IBM said. IBM expects it to be upgradeable over time, with the goal of running 1 billion operations in a single quantum circuit by 2033. That’s an extraordinary amount of supercomputing resources for a wide variety of scientific and upcoming business operations.

Figure B

Currently, IBM Quantum System Two runs three IBM Quantum Heron processors. It began operating recently at an IBM facility in Yorktown Heights, NY.

Qiskit quantum SDK reaches stable release 1.0

Qiskit 1.0, the stable release of IBM’s quantum computing software development kit, will be available in February 2024. (IBM first made Qiskit available in 2017.) Qiskit 1.0 is built around the idea of Patterns, IBM’s programming template for making quantum computing more accessible by translating classical inputs to quantum problems. Patterns are meant to be run on IBM’s Quantum Serverless computing infrastructure.

Generative AI for quantum code programming in Qiskit will be available through IBM’s enterprise AI platform watsonx. IBM revealed Qiskit Code Assistant, a generative AI assistant bot made to help users navigate Qiskit and IBM Quantum Platform. Qiskit Code Assistant is coming in alpha in early 2024 for premium subscribers of the IBM Quantum Platform.

“Generative AI and quantum computing are both reaching an inflection point, presenting us with the opportunity to use the trusted foundation model framework of watsonx to simplify how quantum algorithms can be built for utility-scale exploration,” said Jay Gambetta, vice president and IBM fellow at IBM, in a press release.

Plus, IBM announced:

  •  A new Transpiler Service in Qiskit
  •  AI Transpiler passes for Qiskit Premium users
  •  the Batch execution mode, a context manager.

IBM expands roadmap for quantum development

IBM unveiled an expanded roadmap that will shape its work on developing quantum computing. IBM Quantum System Two is part of the plan as the home of IBM’s upcoming quantum processors.

According to the roadmap, 2023 was the year of IBM adding generative AI and speeding up quantum processing by five times with quantum serverless and Execution modes. IBM plans to focus 2024 on improving quantum circuit quality and speed to allow 5,000 quantum logic gates with parametric circuits. (A quantum logic gate is a building block of quantum computing, operating on qubits instead of conventional bits.) IBM Quantum Heron and resource management are on the schedule for 2024.

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What are important areas in quantum research?

What companies are leading in developing quantum computing?

Qiskit offers generative AI for quantum code programming.

What are important areas in quantum research?

What fields can quantum computers advance?

Quantum programming combines quantum mechanics, linear algebra, and computer science to advance cryptography, optimization, and simulation.

What fields can quantum computers advance?

Quantum algorithms can be developed using classical-quantum hybrid approaches like QAOA.

IBM offers education programs and access to quantum computers to develop quantum computing skills.

What companies are leading in developing quantum computing?

Developing post-quantum encryption is crucial as quantum computers can break daily public key cryptography.

Title:

Content: Skip to Content

Secure cryptography in a post-quantum world

Preeti Yadav
23 Jun 2022

Quantum technologies will play a decisive role in information security, enabling secure communication between mutually-trusting parties and multiparty computations between distrustful parties to take place safely. These kinds of useful functionalities fit perfectly within the scope of the future quantum internet.

Communication is undoubtedly an essential part of human society, with the task of secure communication being motivated by the need to protect end users’ private data. More than ever, we are provided with an abundance of options for digital communication: emailing, messaging, image/audio clips, and video, among many others. Today’s society often blindly trusts that those means of communication are secure enough for data to be privately transmitted. How safe are we really, though, and for how long?

For centuries, transmitting confidential messages meant coming up with different schemes of encryption and decryption, and keeping those schemes secret. Over the years, new methods were discovered in which parties could send information perfectly securely, even if the scheme was known, as long as the parties had previously shared a secret key. It has become clear that the critical aspect of secure communication is, in fact, the security of those keys used for encryption/decryption, rather than the method itself. This has given rise to the problem of distribution of keys between distant users, a fundamental challenge in cryptography. Mathematical problems with computationally complex algorithmic solutions have been proposed  –  from discrete logarithms, and integer factorization, through to public key cryptography (PKC), to provide ways of key distribution as well as authentication. At present, PKC is used to secure most of the private data transmitted over the Internet.

One of the most promising modern applications of quantum physics is quantum computation. Quantum computers work in a fundamentally different way to traditional computers, by using quantum bits or qubits (represented by a two-level quantum system, such as the polarization of photons, or spin of electrons) instead of regular classical bits. Qubits display unique features of quantum mechanics, in particular superposition, interference, and entanglement, allowing for possibilities that are not feasible with classical bits. Quantum computers, which exhibit and exploit these unique features of quantum systems, can speed up computing capabilities exponentially, enabling computations otherwise impossible using classical computers. The various applications range from problems of optimization and searching unsorted data, to machine learning, simulations, and quantum chemistry, among others.

The relevance of quantum technologies in cryptography became apparent with Shor’s algorithm for quantum computers, based on efficiently finding prime factors of arbitrary integers. Interestingly, they are changing the landscape of information security in more than one way. On one hand, quantum computers are, in theory, able to break cryptography used every day to protect data, which is based on public key cryptography. Without being aware of it, we use these protocols all the time in our daily lives, from texting friends on the phone, to making purchases with cards at the supermarket. On the other hand, quantum protocols have been developed that can be used to perform these tasks, without being susceptible to attacks by any computer. To be able to break these protocols, you would have to break the very laws of physics! These quantum cryptography protocols use photons, which are the “quanta” of light, to encode information by manipulating different degrees of freedom, such as polarization or phase, and accurately measuring their state. Thus, quantum systems allow us to realize communication protocols that have superior security when compared to their classical counterparts.

Figure 1: The impact of quantum computing attacks

Despite the ongoing efforts and investments in the development of quantum computers, the timeline for the availability of a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer is uncertain. This is because these computers are yet to overcome the challenges associated with increasing the available number of qubits, i.e., increasing their computational power. IBM recently unveiled their 127-qubit processor called Eagle[1]. Nevertheless, it is also important to understand that the migration from quantum-vulnerable to quantum-resistant protocols requires time and effort that are, again, difficult to estimate at this point. With the upcoming “quantum threat” of cryptographically relevant quantum computers (CRQC)[2], there is a dire necessity for secure communication schemes that are resilient to quantum attacks. Therefore, it is wise to start looking into quantum-secure protocols that have superior security when compared to their classical counterparts.

Quantum key distribution (QKD) was the first quantum protocol to receive mainstream attention due to two main features. Firstly, it achieves the task of key distribution, a problem at the heart of achieving secure encryption; second, it does so while being “unconditionally secure,” as opposed to classical protocols that rely on the difficulty of specific computational problems. During QKD, two parties (traditionally called Alice and Bob) share a collection of quantum systems and then make measurements on them, such that they can establish a secret key between themselves on which a third party has no information. In fact, the laws of physics guarantee that any attempt to try to eavesdrop on the quantum channel to distribute keys can be detected by Alice and Bob through communication over an authenticated channel.

Beyond the key distribution problem for secure communication between two parties, another important scenario to consider is that of multiple parties interested in performing joint computations. These computations may use private inputs from individual parties and should be privacy-preserving in the sense that a user’s private inputs are not revealed to any other party during the computation. The famous Millionaires’ problem is an example of such a computation, where two millionaires want to determine who is richer while keeping their individual wealth private (Figure 2). This task, known as secure multiparty computation (SMC), is of extreme importance when involving scenarios with multiple parties that do not necessarily trust each other (as opposed to QKD, in which the two parties trust each other and try to keep their shared key secret from external eavesdroppers). This guarantee of keeping users’ private data secret is further enforced by strict data protection laws. Volumes of data like the approximately 64 zettabytes generated in 2020[3] and the 181 zettabytes expected by 2025 are a great source of power. Having access to an SMC service and performing arbitrary computations will provide ways to profit from valuable data from multiple sources, such as through privacy preserving data mining (PPDM) (Figure 3).

Figure 2: The Millionaires’ problem, first proposed by Andrew Yao in 1982, as an example of secure computation, as well as its solution

At Capgemini Engineering, Portugal, we are looking into ways of performing the task of SMC with quantum technologies and exploring how the use of quantum resources can provide security against attacks that impact PKC. Interestingly, the techniques used in QKD have been found to be useful for other tasks beyond key distribution. In our Quantum Lab, we prepare and measure quantum systems in very similar ways to QKD – by encoding information in the polarization states of photons and performing measurements. This means that all the technology and infrastructure being developed so far to support QKD can be very easily adapted to implement our SMC scheme.

Figure 3: Companies can, for instance, provide digital services to users in exchange for their information, which can be analyzed in a secure way through privacy-preserving computations.

Finally, considering that we are moving towards a society with an increasing application of IoT, there are many concerns about how private information will be handled when nearly every device is connected and potentially collecting information about us. The security aspect of our private data is clearly crucial to us as individuals as well as to businesses and governments and having reliable protocols for secure communication and computation will be one of the most fundamental challenges ahead.

[1] IBM – https://research.ibm.com/blog/127-qubit-quantum-processor-eagle

[2] NSA FAQs – https://media.defense.gov/2021/Aug/04/2002821837/-1/-1/1/Quantum_FAQs_20210804.PDF

[3] Statista – https://www.statista.com/statistics/871513/worldwide-data-created/

What are the potential threats of quantum computers?

threatening national security through breaking encryption

What fields can quantum computers advance?

The US aims to replace encryption systems before quantum computers can compromise them by factoring large numbers.

Title:

Content: Saturday, 06 January 2024 12: 58 GMT
Qu Day, when a computer can hack into all the world's computers
(MENAFN- Al-Anbaa) - Quantum technology could compromise our encryption systems.
Can the United States replace them before it is too late?
Today, they call it Q-Day, the day when a quantum computer, more powerful than any device built to date, will be able to destroy the world of privacy and security as we know it.
- This will happen with a bold arithmetic work; it is to analyze some very large numbers, which are hundreds of numbers long, into their initial factors.
It may sound like a meaningless split question, but it will fundamentally undermine the encryption protocols that governments and companies have relied on for decades.
Sensitive information such as military intelligence, weapon designs, industry secrets and banking information are often transferred or stored under digital locks that can be unlocked through the process of analyzing large numbers.
Surprisingly, among the various threats to U.S. national security, cryptographic detection is rarely discussed in the same terms as nuclear proliferation, the global climate crisis, or artificial general intelligence.
But for many behind the scenes solvers, the danger is existential.
Glenn Gerstel, former NSA general counsel and one of the authors of the Expert Consensus Report on Cryptography, confirms that this issue is likely to be very different from any one we ’ ve ever encountered.
There may be only a 1% chance of this happening, but a 1% chance of a catastrophic risk is something to worry about.
In the same vein, the White House and its internal security apparatus have made clear that a powerful quantum computer, if it falls into the wrong hands, can disrupt everything from secure communications to the foundations of our financial system.
In a short time, scammers can control credit card transactions and stock exchanges; manipulate air traffic systems and GPS signals; and the security of critical infrastructure, such as nuclear plants and the power grid, can be compromised.
The risk extends not only to future breaches, but also to decrypted sets of encrypted data collected now and in the years to come.
Current and former intelligence officials say China and other potential rivals are already working to find and store such data in the hope of decrypting it in the future.
No one knows when quantum computing will go this far.
Today, the most powerful quantum device uses 433 qubits, also called the quantum equivalent of transistors.
That number would probably need to reach tens of thousands, perhaps even millions, before today ’ s crypto systems fall.
But within the American cybersecurity community, the threat is perceived as real and urgent.
China, Russia and the United States are racing to develop technology ahead of their geopolitical rivals, though it is hard to know who is advancing because some of the gains are shrouded in secrecy.
On the American side, the prospect of an adversary winning this race has driven a years-long effort to develop a new generation of encryption systems that even a powerful quantum computer won ’ t be able to decrypt.
The effort, which began in 2016, will culminate early next year when the National Institute of Standards and Technology finalizes its guidance for the transition to new systems.
Late last year, US President Joe Biden signed into law the Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act, which directed agencies to begin verifying their cryptographic regulations that would need to be replaced.
But even in light of this new urgency, the shift to stronger encryption will likely take about a decade or more, a pace that some experts fear may not be fast enough to avert disaster.
Stay on top of the scene
Researchers have known since the 1990s that quantum computing — which relies on the properties of subatomic particles to perform multiple calculations at the same time — may one day threaten the cryptographic systems used today.
In 1994, American mathematician Peter Shore demonstrated how to do this, publishing an algorithm that a virtual quantum computer could use at the time to quickly factor exceptionally large numbers, a task in which traditional computers lacked efficiency.
- Shore's algorithm was initially treated with a degree of anxious curiosity.
But the world is already moving to embrace encryption methods that Shore has proven to be particularly weak.
However, quantum computing has undergone a major breakthrough.
In recent years, IBM, Google and others have shown steady progress in building larger and more capable models, leading experts to conclude that expansion is not only theoretically possible, but also achievable through some crucial technical advances.
Cybersecurity experts have been warning for some time that rivals such as China and Russia — among the few adversaries with both the scientific talent and the billions of dollars needed to build a massive quantum computer — are likely to go ahead with quantum science in secret.
Despite a number of achievements by American scientists, analysts insist the nation is still at risk of being left behind — a fear echoed this month in a report by the Center for Data Innovation, a think-tank focused on technology policy.
Open Source Defense
According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the federal government has set an overall goal of switching as far as possible to these new anti-quantum algorithms by 2035, which many officials acknowledge is ambitious.
These algorithms are the product of years of collaboration within a diverse and international community of cryptographers.
After being invited around the world in 2016, the National Institute of Standards and Technology received 82 applications, most of which were developed by small teams of academics and engineers.
As in the past, the National Institute of Standards and Technology relied on a guidebook in which it solicited and then launched new solutions for researchers in government and the private sector, to be selected because of weaknesses.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology eventually selected four algorithms to recommend their wider use.
Despite the serious challenges of transitioning to these new algorithms, the United States has benefited from the experience of previous migrations, such as those that addressed the so-called Y2K bug and previous moves to new cryptographic standards.
The size of American companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon, with their control over large swaths of internet traffic, also means that few players can quietly accomplish the transformation.
But strategists warn that the way an adversary might behave after a major breakthrough makes the threat different from any society has faced.
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What are the potential threats of quantum computers?

threatening national security through breaking encryption

What fields can quantum computers advance?

The US government will require post-quantum cryptography by 2035, a field researched since 2003.

Title:

Content: • En
Taiwan will launch a post-quantum cryptography Academia Sinica Yang Peiyin calls on the government to invest heavily to recruit the best talent
Yang: If the public sector is willing to provide the right cryptographic utilities, then the cost of adopting post-quantum cryptography will be lower.
Yang Pei-yin, a research fellow at Academia Sinica's Institute of Research, believes that post-quantum cryptography, whether it is theoretical or practical, should be studied on various topics.
(Source: Taiwan English News)
(Taiwan English News / Lin Ching-yi, Taipei Interview) Countries in Europe, the United States and Asia have noticed the need to switch to post-quantum cryptography, and Taiwan, which has been hit by a recent surge in attacks, is clearly no exception.
Professor Yang Boyin, a researcher at the Institute of Information Science at the Academia Sinica, reminded that the entire society should have a consensus on the matter of post-quantum cryptography, and the public sector should smash the capital and recruit good talents to help migrate to a cryptographic system that can resist the threat of quantum computers.
As for the future development of post-quantum cryptography, Yang Po-yin, a research fellow at Academia Sinica's Institute of Information Technology, says that 30 years later, when post-quantum cryptography, also known as anti-quantum computational cryptography, replaced all cryptography systems that are now unable to resist quantum computer attacks, there was no need to add the word "post-quantum" when talking about cryptography.
As for when quantum computers will develop to crack the current public-key cryptography, Yang said that this part is still worth debating, maybe five, 10 years or more.
He also reminded that, in fact, everyone has information that they want to hide for 30 years, from highly sensitive information of government agencies, financial information, medical records, to other high-value information, which must be kept secret for a long time.
So, when we are determined to transition from the current public key cryptography system to the post-quantum public key cryptography system, it will take another 5 to 10 years, and this period is a dangerous period.
"Cryptography" is unfamiliar to the public, but when it comes to terms such as information security, such as solid-state drive encryption in mobile phones or hard disk encryption in computers, chip cards in ATMs, and end-to-end encryption in conversation software, everyone knows that cryptography has been integrated into daily life.
Yang proposed that some national powers are now collecting all the encrypted transmission information they think is worth collecting, and at some point, when they have a quantum computer, they can break the encryption and read all the information.
For the sake of information security, the U.S. government signed National Security Memorandum No. 10 (NSM) in 2022, requiring all federal governments and their agencies to use post-quantum cryptography by 2035.
The first post-quantum cryptography system was developed in 1978 by Robert McEliece, an asymmetric encryption algorithm developed by Robert McEliece, and it was not until 1994 that Shor discovered that quantum computers could crack traditional public-key cryptography.
In 2003, in order to distinguish whether the public-key cryptography system studied was quantum-resistant, someone gave this research a new name called Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC), so he is not a completely new cryptography system, not a completely new learning, only the last seven or eight years have been emphasized.
In 2006, a group of post-quantum cryptography researchers held the "First Post-Quantum Crypto International Conference (PQCrypto)", which has been nearly 20 years, although not the top or most highly regarded information security conference, but it has also received wide academic and industry attention.
Yang Boin talks about the 1989 IBM experiment, the company used a large molecule of hydrogen atoms to simulate seven qubits, through the Shor factorization algorithm to successfully break the whole number of 15 into three times five, which is Proof of Concept (proof of concept), said "it is possible".
Over the years, IBM ’ s quantum computer has only grown to a hundred bits.
Although it feels that there is little progress in terms of quantity, because the qubits are now all kinds of scalable qubits such as atoms in superconductors or traps, there is actually a big push in terms of quality.
Yang has been involved in various aspects of quantum cryptography for 20 years, and for him, the study itself is very beautiful, of course, for this reason to study it is more like a religious belief, just like the mountain is there so climbers to climb the mountain.
He believes that post-quantum cryptography, whether theoretical or practical, should be studied on various topics.
Moreover, Taiwan's chip manufacturing technology is a major advantage, he believes that Taiwan's industry will therefore have a good space for development in post-quantum, and in post-quantum cryptography, Taiwan must not be absent.
Yang Boyan suggested that, first, we need the entire society to have a consensus on the matter of post-quantum migration.
Second, all programs related to cryptography should be led by the public sector to provide fast, secure, efficient and free programs, and eliminate legal issues such as patents and copyrights.
Third, the public sector should re-establish itself and recruit good talents to work in Taiwan.
Yang Boyin explained that today, a person who understands quantum cryptography can get a very high salary in the industry, and the public sector can keep him in Taiwan as long as it can pay not too much difference with the industry.
But if not, then the migration effect of quantum cryptography is not very good.
Take Google, IBM or Amazon as an example, their slightly seniority researchers, his salary is many times that of our researchers, if it is to provide sufficient incentives and relatively good salaries, it can attract our foreign doctoral students or foreign senior professionals to Taiwan to work.
However, this matter is difficult to rationalize the expenditure in the private sector, so he believes that it is best for the public sector to take the lead, otherwise it is basically difficult to continue for a long time, which is not only a problem of information security or post-quantum cryptography, but also in other areas of technology.
Yang has just retired a 14-year advanced computing server, which he purchased in 2009 for about $1 million.
He wants to tell everyone that after the research, quantum cryptography is much cheaper than biomedicine, biochemistry, and pharmaceuticals. "We will not go down with a reagent on tens of thousands of pieces, so the sunk cost of quantum cryptography will not be so high, of course, there is no way to immediately see recovery, but this is a necessary investment."
Yang Bo pointed out another blind spot, we all regard "security" as a "cost" to look at. Although, security is to spend money and time, but we must let everyone know that investment in security is cheap and necessary.
If you don ’ t provide a secure password environment, your costs will go up in the future.
For example, if a contractor wants to bid on a government case, and he does not use a known secure post-quantum cryptography, the government can predict that in seven to ten years, as in the future, the United States will not be able to bid.
This allows everyone to use the new password system.
On the contrary, if the contractor can bid without post-quantum cryptography, he will not want to use it – there are fewer post-quantum cryptography talents today, and there must not be many people who can write this program, so it is more expensive.
We should use different methods to make post-quantum cryptography more beneficial than non-post-quantum cryptography, because if one day, you are hacked because you did not switch to post-quantum, you will be much more expensive than not investing, which is why the public sector should take the lead and provide fast, safe, efficient and free programs.
Yang Boyan encouraged the government and enterprises, should have professional security personnel to do after the migration of quantum cryptography.
Before the migration, they need to inventory the hardware and software equipment, those still using the old password system, need to gradually change to the new encryption system according to the level of risk and process.
In order to ensure that everyone can implement, the public sector should provide a considerable amount of resources to provide efficient and formally verified utilities. If the government is willing to provide a post-quantum cryptography utility library and can allow everyone to be exempted from legal liability when adopting it, the cost will be lower, and everyone will be more willing to switch to post-quantum cryptography.
For the future of Taiwan can refer to the post-quantum cryptography implemented by those countries, Yang Pei-yin admits that countries in the Asian region are passive, and no one really wants to create a post-quantum ecosystem (PQC Ecosystem).
If you ask which country is more diligent, South Korea is running its own post-quantum race and turning them into its own national standard.
Although there are such competitions in China, they do not seem to have the intention of standardizing the winners, even if in the future they will have official (not academic or industry) national standards.
Yang noted that the “Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) ” competition held by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will be used to determine their national standards.
And their standards, in fact, will eventually become the standard of most people in the world, so NIST PQC is actually quite important.
In recent years, almost all public key cryptographers have devoted most of their time to this competition.
Sharing the story of the Rainbow cipher system he and other scholars developed, and his team ’ s experience of entering the NIST PQC final, he pointed out that Rainbow was an enhanced version of the UOV (Unbalanced Vinegar Signing) and was selected as the finalist (equivalent to reaching the final), but has now been eliminated.
That ’ s because a young Belgian, Ward Beullens, discovered a very beautiful attack, so Rainbow ’ s system is not safe.
Yang believes that the research team spent on Rainbow ’ s research, whether theoretical or practical, has not really been wasted.
Basically, the cryptographic system will look for parameters that are both secure and suitable for implementation, and then implement them, and then convince enough people to embed it into a practical system, as is Rainbow, and so is UOV. Most of the properties of UOV and Rainbow are the same, so why not propose UOV in the first place?
This decision was conclusively proven wrong by Beullens because of changes made in Rainbow for higher performance.
However, UOV is still the loudest algorithm in this round.
Yang doesn ’ t like to use “advanced deployment ” to describe post-quantum cryptography, but it ’ s a job that has to be done.
When the European and American countries are about to embark on the migration of post-quantum cryptography, he believes that immediately knowing that every bet now placed may go directly to the water, but we still have to bet, the bet is always risky, but even if the bet is not necessarily right, but you do not bet, you will lose.
In addition to Elliptic Curve Cryptography and RSA Cryptography, SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm 1), MD5 (Message-Digest Algorithm) Wait for the algorithm should also be eliminated, these algorithms, there are still many places in Taiwan are still used.
Taiwan is currently moving slower than others, and needs to keep up with the international pace in the migration of post-quantum cryptography by virtue of its hardware advantages.
Updated: 2023-08-15 18: 00 GMT + 08: 00

What fields can quantum computers advance?

NIST is standardizing post-quantum cryptoalgorithms and will finalize guidance in 2024.

What fields can quantum computers advance?

Taiwan and South Korea are developing post-quantum cryptography initiatives.

What fields can quantum computers advance?

The US, China, and others are heavily investing in quantum computing, with China potentially surpassing the US and Europe.

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In 2021, Booz Allen Hamilton analysts surmised that China will surpass Europe and the US in quantum-related research and development and that Chinese hackers could soon target heavily encrypted datasets such as weapon designs or details of undercover intelligence officers with a view to unlocking them at a later date when quantum computing makes decryption possible.

In the report titled “Chinese threats in the quantum era”, BAH said “encrypted data with intelligence longevity, like biometric markers, covert intelligence officer and source identities, social security numbers, and weapons’ designs, may be increasingly stolen under the expectation that they can eventually be decrypted,” the report says. It says “state-aligned cyber threat actors” will start to steal or intercept previously unusable encrypted data. Chinese could hack data for future quantum decryption, report warns | Hacking | The Guardian

In fact, as reported earlier this month by the Financial Times, Chinese researchers are claiming that they have used a quantum computer to break RSA encryption, which if true, would be years ahead of expectations. Though the Chinese claims have yet to be proven (if ever), it underscores that there is a significant amount of work going on quantum research to achieve that goal and that current estimates of when anyone may break RSA encryption may be more hopeful than reality based. *Financial Times January 4, 2023

Recently, Tim Callan, a chief experience officer at cybersecurity company Sectigo, told DailyMail.com that quantum computers — which already exist could one day 'make the encryption we use today no longer fit for purpose'. He noted that “The evolution of quantum computers creates a significant threat to data security, and their immense processing power is capable of breaking encryption at great speed, leaving important data vulnerable, everything from bank account details to medical records to state secrets.” He said that 'this scenario is so alarming that specialists refer to it as the "Quantum Apocalypse.” The Quantum Apocalypse is 'just YEARS away', experts say | Daily Mail Online

The event has also been referred to as Q-Day by quantum researchers where large-scale quantum computers will be able to use Shor's algorithm to break all public key systems that employ integer factorization-based (and other) cryptography.

The urgency of a Q-Day or Quantum Apocalypse was a subject of a lecture of mine for The Economist conference, “A look into Commercialising Quantum 2022 in London”. There is little doubt that quantum computers will be able to perform faster and more precise computations than classical computers and could pose geo-military threats if in the wrong hands. And that the same computing power that allows complex problems to be solved can, in turn, be applied to undermine cybersecurity. This is because current cybersecurity protocols typically use pseudo-random numbers to encrypt sensitive information such as passwords, personal data, and quantum computers can crack the methods traditional computers use to generate random numbers, posing a significant threat to any organization using standard encryption tools.

FtChinese researchers claim to find way to break encryption using quantum computers

This month, the IBM Institute for Business Value issued report titled Security in the Quantum Era” The report examines the reality of quantum risk and the need for “enterprise adoption of quantum-safe capabilities to safeguard the integrity of critical applications and infrastructure as the risk of decryption increases.”

The IBM report states that quantum computing poses an “existential risk” to classical computer encryption protocols, and notes that cybercriminals are potentially already exfiltrating encrypted data with the intention of decrypting it once quantum computers advance as part of “harvest now, decrypt layer attacks.” IBM: Quantum computing poses an ‘existential threat’ to data encryption | VentureBeat

My personal advice, in view of the recognition of the decryption threat, is to get ready now because quantum computing will be here soon enough, and it is time for businesses, organizations and governments to protect their data for that inevitability. The good news is that we do not have to wait for technological solutions to be developed as quantum tech can battle quantum threats and there are already capabilities on the market for defense. Also, for more on quantum technologies, please see my article in FORBES: “The Quantum Era Is Arriving, And It Will Be Transformational! The Quantum Era Is Arriving, And It Will Be Transformational ! (forbes.com)

One company called Quantum Computing Inc. (QCI) (NASDAQ:QUBT), is ahead of the game and operates a full-stack quantum solutions company that is on a mission to accelerate the delivery quantum information processing hardware systems with both performance and cybersecurity benefits. With their existing quantum photonics technology offerings, it is already feasible for the company to replace classical type computing with entropy quantum computing to strengthen key sources for any cryptographic task. About Us | Quantum Computing Inc.

Quantum Computing Inc uses a Quantum Photonic System (QPS) to leverage pure, non-linear, optical properties to create a core quantum photonics technology that can be deployed at room temperature, in ordinary server room type environments. Their QPS methods and systems already have demonstrated the ability to deliver high precision computations in solving complex business optimization problems, powerful single-photon measurements in remote sensing applications such as Lidar and they have demonstrated 3-D quantum imaging capabilities using visible and near infrared, eye-safe radiation.

QCI’s Entropy Quantum Computer (EQC) system is specifically focused in addressing real-world optimization problems at a scale (11,000 Qubits) with full connectivity between variables (high density). Today, this sits in comparison with the more typical small-scale problems using limited connectivity among qubits that alternative quantum systems use to showcase their technologies. Bottom line is that today, the EQC provides results that will allow industries to scale faster as this new quantum photonic technology continues to advance.

Moreover, their entropy quantum computer operates at low power levels (< 80 Watts) and is a small compact design to fit in rack mounted or table-top configurations – offering very low SWAPc specifications (Size, Weight, Power and Cost). no quantum experts to calibrate and keep it running.

The CEO of Quantum Computing Inc , Robert Liscouski says that this same Quantum Photonic technology “can also be leveraged to provide Quantum Encryption + Quantum Authentication on the same platform and is a full solution to replace public-private key cryptography that is vulnerable to evolving quantum threats.” QCI’s patent on Quantum Private Communication methodology addresses the concerns of key distribution approaches with trusted third-party authentication / validation and provides a pure hardware alternative approach involving no mathematics or algorithms or pseudo random numbers. Patented approaches using entangled photons and correlated true quantum random numbers generated from the quantum entropy source are combined in a methodology that ensures ONLY intended recipients of information are properly authenticated in a trustless system approach.

Mr. Liscouski notes that the threat to public key cryptography, if it is broken by Shor’s algorithm, could leave critical infrastructure, financial & banking systems, healthcare, and transportation all vulnerable to attack. With QPS, that threat is mitigated both on current classical or from near-term quantum systems with the company’s existing technologies such as its quantum random number generator, and a new photonic physically unclonable function chip that provides a unique authentication “quantum fingerprint” for the user.

This quantum photonic platform is welcomed as the West is amid a “Quantum Computing Supremacy Race” especially with China that can exponentially change the geo-political balance of the world.

China has recently announced some eye-opening milestones on their quantum communications capabilities and Chinese researchers announced last year that they set a new quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) world record of 102.2 km (64 miles), smashing the previous mark of 18 km (11 miles). Researchers break world record for quantum-encrypted communications (engadget.com) The Chinese are heavily investing (estimated to be the many $billions) in all areas of quantum research and are demonstrating results.

Investment is also growing in quantum in the US and in Europe and with Asian allies. The Japanese government recently announced that intends to enter the global quantum computing race by putting its first domestically produced quantum computer into service within the current fiscal year ending March 2023. “The government strategy aims to reach 10 million quantum technology users in Japan by 2030 and to create an environment where it can be used in such varied fields as medicine, banking and new materials development.” Tokyo proposes first domestic quantum computer use by March 2023 | The Japan Times

The U.S. Government, including NSA, DOD, DHS, NIST have been preparing for a potential Q-Day by requiring new quantum proof standards for algorithms. “NSA views quantum-resistant (or post-quantum) cryptography as a more cost effective and easily maintained solution than quantum key distribution. For all these reasons, NSA does not support the usage of QKD or QC to protect communications in National Security Systems and does not anticipate certifying or approving any QKD or QC security products for usage by NSS customers. This is a perfect time and opportunity for QCI’s Quantum Private Communication Network and other post quantum technology applications to be to tested and deployed in the Zero-trust environment. National Security Agency/Central Security Service > Cybersecurity > Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and Quantum Cryptography QC (nsa.gov)

Stopping the threat of adversaries decrypting valuable data extracted from networks, agencies, data centers, and companies, by adversaries has also become a legislative priority. In December of 2022 Congress, passed the Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act into law. The legislation, directs the Office of Management and Budget “to prioritize the migration of federal information technology systems to post-quantum cryptography and come up with guidance for the federal assessment of critical systems based on the standards that the National Institute of Standards and Technology will issue for post-quantum cryptography.” This is a great step as it mandates forward thinking about our quantum era and the security implications of not being prepared.

Governments are not the only players. Industry, including Intel, Google, IBM, D-Wave, and others are very active in investments in quantum capabilities and approaches. Academia is also getting more involved in quantum. In an important development, scientists with the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE) at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering announced that they’ve connected the city of Chicago and suburban labs with a quantum network. The Chicago network will be opened to academia and industry as one of the nation’s first publicly-available testbeds for quantum security technology. Chicago expands and activates quantum network, taking steps toward a secure quantum internet | Chicago Quantum Exchange

The University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are two leading universities to follow for more on quantum developments. Also, for researchers, The Quantum Security Alliance and IEEE Quantum are two good resources that bring academia, industry, and US government entities together to identify, define, collaborate on quantum computing technology innovations. Welcome to Quantum Security Alliance About - IEEE Quantum

Certainly, quantum technology, especially quantum computing, has amazing potential that could revolutionize everything from communications, real-time data analytics, bio tech, genomic sequencing, and materials sciences. Quantum computing will also accelerate us into the future by impacting the landscape of artificial intelligence and the Metaverse. But with the good, we have to plan and prevent the bad, most critically data which is the lifeblood of economies and commerce. Starting now, a quantum proof cybersecurity path is an important one to follow.

Chuck Brooks is President of Brooks Consulting International, is a globally recognized thought leader and subject matter expert Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies. Chuck is also an Adjunct Faculty at Georgetown University’s Graduate Applied Intelligence Program and the Graduate Cybersecurity Risk Management Programs. Cyber Express named Chuck “Cybersecurity Person of the Year” for 2022. LinkedIn named Chuck as one of “The Top 5 Tech People to Follow on LinkedIn.” He was named as one of the world’s “10 Best Cyber Security and Technology Experts” by Best Rated. He is also a Cybersecurity Expert for “The Network” at the Washington Post, Visiting Editor at Homeland Security Today, Expert for Executive Mosaic/GovCon, and a Contributor to FORBES.  Chuck has an MA from the University of Chicago, and a BA from DePauw University.

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Google has announced Dilithium, a post-quantum encryption algorithm combining ECDSA with quantum-resistant technology.

Title:

Content: DILITHIUM —

Google announces new algorithm that makes FIDO encryption safe from quantum computers

New approach combines ECDSA with post-quantum algorithm called Dilithium.

The FIDO2 industry standard adopted five years ago provides the most secure known way to log in to websites because it doesn’t rely on passwords and has the most secure form of  built-in two-factor authentication. Like many existing security schemes today, though, FIDO faces an ominous if distant threat from quantum computing, which one day will cause the currently rock-solid cryptography the standard uses to completely crumble.

Over the past decade, mathematicians and engineers have scrambled to head off this cryptopocalypse with the advent of PQC—short for post-quantum cryptography—a class of encryption that uses algorithms resistant to quantum-computing attacks. This week, researchers from Google announced the release of the first implementation of quantum-resistant encryption for use in the type of security keys that are the basic building blocks of FIDO2.

The best known implementation of FIDO2 is the passwordless form of authentication: passkeys. So far, there are no known ways passkeys can be defeated in credential phishing attacks. Dozens of sites and services now allow users to log in using passkeys, which use cryptographic keys stored in security keys, smartphones, and other devices.

“While quantum attacks are still in the distant future, deploying cryptography at Internet scale is a massive undertaking which is why doing it as early as possible is vital,” Elie Bursztein and Fabian Kaczmarczyck, cybersecurity and AI research director, and software engineer, respectively, at Google wrote. “In particular, for security keys this process is expected to be gradual as users will have to acquire new ones once FIDO has standardized post-quantum cryptography resilient cryptography and this new standard is supported by major browser vendors.”

The path to PQC is fraught with risks. RSA and other encryption algorithms have been in use for decades with no known ways for them to be broken. Over the years, that track record has led to confidence that they are safe for use. PQC algorithms are in their infancy, and that has rightly led to concern that they can’t yet be trusted. A case in point: a PQC algorithm called SIKE. Last year, after advancing as a fourth-round candidate in a program run by the US Department of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology, SIKE was completely and spectacularly broken by a single classical computer.

The PQC algorithm used in the implementation of FIDO2 security keys takes a more cautious approach. It combines the elliptic curve digital signature algorithm—believed to be unbreakable by classical computing but easily broken with quantum computing—with a PQC algorithm known as Crystals-Dilithium. Crystals-Dilithium is now one of three PQC algorithms selected by NIST for use with digital signatures.

The particular Dilithium used in the recently released digital key implementation appears to solve a variety of problems. First, for it to be broken, an attacker would have to defeat both the ECDSA encryption and the PCQ encryption that underpins its security. And second, the keys it uses are tiny compared to many other PQC algorithms in circulation now. In this week’s post, the Google researchers wrote:

Our proposed implementation relies on a hybrid approach that combines the battle tested ECDSA signature algorithm and the recently standardized quantum resistant signature algorithm, Dilithium. In collaboration with ETH, we developed this novel hybrid signature schema that offers the best of both worlds. Relying on a hybrid signature is critical as the security of Dilithium and other recently standardized quantum resistant algorithms haven’t yet stood the test of time and recent attacks on Rainbow (another quantum resilient algorithm) demonstrate the need for caution. This cautiousness is particularly warranted for security keys as most can’t be upgraded – although we are working toward it for OpenSK. The hybrid approach is also used in other post-quantum efforts like Chrome’s support for TLS.

On the technical side, a large challenge was to create a Dilithium implementation small enough to run on security keys’ constrained hardware. Through careful optimization, we were able to develop a Rust memory optimized implementation that only required 20 KB of memory, which was sufficiently small enough. We also spent time ensuring that our implementation signature speed was well within the expected security keys specification. That said, we believe improving signature speed further by leveraging hardware acceleration would allow for keys to be more responsive.

Moving forward, we are hoping  to see this implementation (or a variant of it), being standardized as part of the FIDO2 key specification and supported by major web browsers so that users' credentials can be protected against quantum attacks. If you are interested in testing this algorithm or contributing to security key research, head to our open source implementation OpenSK.

The security of RSA and other traditional forms of asymmetric encryption is based on mathematical problems that are easy to verify the answer to but hard to calculate. RSA, for instance, relies on the difficulty of factorizing prime numbers. Finding the primes for the number 27,919,645,564,169,759 is hard, but once someone is told the primes are 48,554,491 and 575,016,749 it takes a few seconds to verify (thanks to Boot.dev for the example).

A factorization method known as Shor’s algorithm makes it theoretically possible to solve these types of problems. That, in turn, means certain death for many of the cryptographic schemes now protecting encrypted web sessions, banking and medical data, and other secrets. The only thing holding back this doomsday scenario is the massive amount of quantum computing resources required.

While classical computers can’t run Shor’s algorithm efficiently enough to break RSA keys in use today, quantum computers with sufficient power will be able to solve them in a matter of eight hours. No one knows when that day will come, though one expert in the field said recently it won’t be in our lifetime. Still, as the Google researchers pointed out, adopting any PQC schemes will be slow, so it makes sense to begin work sooner rather than later.

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Content: Intel bets big on security as a service for confidential computing

At its inaugural Vision event, Intel launched a security as a service initiative called Project Amber for confidential computing in the cloud, and outlined its support for secure and responsible AI and quantum-resistant cryptography.

Intel revealed a string of security advancements at its inaugural Intel Vision event this week, including Project Amber — a security as a service initiative for confidential computing — as well as increased collaboration for secure and responsible developments in AI, and a phased approach to quantum-safe cryptography.

Project Amber is aimed at providing organizations with remote verification of security in cloud, edge, and on-premises environments.

"As organizations continue to capitalize on the value of the cloud, security has never been more top of mind," said Greg Lavender, CTO and general manager of the Software and Advanced Technology Group at Intel. "With the introduction of Project Amber, Intel is taking confidential computing to the next level in our commitment to a zero-trust approach to attestation and the verification of computing assets at the network, edge, and in the cloud."

What is confidential computing?

Intel defines confidential computing as a process of isolating the sensitive data payloads with hardware-based memory protections. Hardware-based TEEs (trusted execution environments) are used to help secure data in use. Intel uses its SGX (Software Guard Extensions) available on the Intel Xeon Scalable platform to deploy  confidential computing technology.

"Confidential computing is an emerging industry initiative focused on helping enterprises better secure their applications and sensitive data while currently in use and during processing," says Gary McAlum, senior analyst at Tag Cyber. "To secure enterprise data, confidential computing runs it within secure enclaves that isolate data and code to prevent unauthorized access, even when the infrastructure itself is compromised."

It's important to note, McAlum adds, that while confidential computing is a powerful security concept, it's not a silver bullet. With the growing data security challenges and proliferating privacy regulations, it is imperative organizations take a holistic approach to cybersecurity.

Best practices that McAlum recommends include regular patching, implementing strong authentication controls, continuous monitoring, employee awareness and training, and data back-up and recovery procedures.

How Intel's Project Amber provides cloud security

Amber provides the foundational basis of trust in a confidential computing environment via a process called attestation. Attestation, Intel says, is a process that verifies that a cloud provider offers the security that customers need to protect their data and intellectual property as they move sensitive workloads to the cloud.

Intel is releasing Project Amber as a multicloud, multi-TEE service for third-party attestation. Also dubbed as "cloud-agnostic," Amber is designed to support confidential computing workloads in the public cloud, within private/hybrid clouds, and at the edge.

"In its first version, Project Amber will support confidential compute workloads deployed as bare metal containers, virtual machines (VMs), and containers running in virtual machines using Intel TEEs," says Nikhil Deshpande, director of product development at Intel. "While the initial release will only support Intel TEEs, the intent is to extend coverage to platforms, TEEs in devices, and other TEEs in the future."

Intel is also working with independent software vendors (ISVs) to enable trust services that include Project Amber.

"To fully implement Zero Trust in cloud environments, Intel's Project Amber will help address the concerns that many cloud customers have about moving extremely sensitive IP and data to the cloud by securing data at all stages of its lifecycle: at rest, in transit, and while in use," says McAlum.

Intel plans to launch a customer pilot of Project Amber in the second half of 2022, followed by general availability in the first half of 2023.

Intel's collaborative efforts for future AI

At the Vision event Intel also emphasized its commitment to developing artificial intelligence that is secure and responsible. To that end, the chipmaker highlighted collaboration with BeeKeeperAI, a zero-trust platform that uses Intel SGX hardware-based security capabilities and Microsoft Azure's confidential computing infrastructure to run a healthcare AI algorithm using real-world clinical data sets, without compromising privacy and integrity.

A second partnership, with the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, allows Intel to contribute to the training of AI models to locate brain tumors.

"While the potential of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to help address the significant cybersecurity challenges of a digital world is exciting, there are also valid concerns around data privacy," adds McAlum. "Intel clearly recognizes the concerns associated with the use of AI/ML capabilities and their public commitment to collaborate with partners such as BeeKeeperAI and University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine."

Intel roots for quantum-resistant cryptography

Intel also revealed its efforts toward addressing the threats posed by quantum computers in both symmetric and public-key cryptography. Alerting to a "millenium-bug-equivalent" moment, or Y2Q — the idea that quantum computing will overpower current security technology —in the coming 10 to 15 years, Intel said that it is developing a rich cryptography technology pipeline to build quantum-resistant cryptotechniques.

In its efforts to this end, Intel enlists a phased approach:

  • Discourage data harvesting by increasing key and digest sizes for symmetric cryptoalgorithms.
  • Increase robustness of code-signing applications such as authentication of firmware and software with quantum-resistant algorithms.
  • Secure the internet with post-quantum cryptoalgorithms standardized by the National Institution of Science and Technology (NIST).

Copyright © 2022 IDG Communications, Inc.

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The UK and IETF have launched initiatives for post-quantum standards and protocols.

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11 notable post-quantum cryptography initiatives launched in 2023

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Oct 09, 202310 mins
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With “Q-Day” in the foreseeable future, the security community is working towards cryptographic encryption that can withstand post-quantum threats

Credit: Microsoft

The point at which quantum computers will be capable of breaking existing cryptographic algorithms -- known as "Q-Day" -- is approaching. It's a juncture that's been discussed for years, but with advancements in computing power, post-quantum threats are becoming very real. Some security experts believe Q-Day will occur within the next decade, potentially leaving all digital information vulnerable under current encryption protocols.

Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) is therefore high on the agenda as the security community works to understand, build, and implement cryptographic encryption that can withstand post-quantum threats and attacks of the future.

"PQC migration provides an opportunity to re-evaluate the larger cybersecurity landscape," Dylan Ruddy, a lead scientist within Booz Allen's quantum sciences team, tells CSO. By integrating new PQC algorithms into a zero-trust architecture, cybersecurity infrastructure can be redesigned into a new crypto agility framework, he says.

"A redesign to these new agile security principals would allow system stakeholders to respond to new threats introduced by emerging technologies by investigating existing cryptographic assets, identifying new cryptographic threat surfaces, and integrating new cryptographic solutions."

Here are 11 notable initiatives, programs, standards, and resources launched this year to help the creation/development of and migration to PQC.

IETF launches working group to coordinate quantum-resistant cryptographic protocols

In January, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) launched the Post-Quantum Use In Protocols (PQUIP) working group to coordinate the use of cryptographic protocols that are not susceptible to large quantum computers. "The idea of the working group is to be a standing venue to discuss PQC from an operational and engineering side," said Sofia Celi, co-chair of PQUI. "It is also a venue of last resort to discuss PQC-related issues in IETF protocols that have no associated maintenance on other working groups that the IETF has."

The IESG said the working group has been set up on an experimental basis, and in two years, it intends to review it for rechartering to continue or else closure. In August, the group published the Post-Quantum Cryptography for Engineers paper to provide an overview of the current threat landscape and the relevant algorithms designed to help prevent those threats.

UK publishes National Quantum Strategy to steer technical standards

In March, the UK government published a new National Quantum Strategy detailing its 10-year plan for leading a quantum-enabled economy, recognizing the importance of quantum technologies for the UK's security.

The UK will work with relevant global bodies to ensure that global quantum technical standards promote its prosperity and security interests, including accelerating the commercialization of quantum technologies and supporting the sector in the UK, outlined the strategy.

The UK will also work with key partners to scope and identify the best approach to coordinating national engagement in priority areas of quantum technical standards development. Relevant industry and academia will be engaged in these efforts to track priority standards activity, raise stakeholder awareness, and develop roadmaps to support UK engagement with quantum standards development, it added.

"There are a number of early quantum standardization activities taking place globally with significant focus on quantum-safe cryptography and quantum key distribution (QKD), with UK leadership in these areas," the strategy read.

In March, quantum security vendor QuSecure claimed to have accomplished the first known live, end-to-end quantum-resilient cryptographic communications satellite link through space. It marked the first time US satellite data transmissions had been protected from classical and quantum decryption attacks using PQC, according to the company. The quantum-secure communication to space and back to Earth was made through a Starlink satellite working with a leading global system integrator (GSI) and security provider.

This is significant because data shared between satellites and ground stations travels through the air and traditionally has been vulnerable to theft, leaving satellite communications even more accessible than typical internet communications, the vendor said.

QuSecure, Accenture achieve successful multi-orbit data communications test secured with PQC

Later in the same month, QuSecure announced it had collaborated with Accenture to accomplish the first successful multi-orbit data communications test secured with PQC. This demonstrated that crypto-agility, successfully rotating to a less vulnerable algorithm, is real and possible, achieved through an Accenture-facilitated low earth orbit (LEO) data transmission, the vendor said.

Prior to this advancement, data from multi-orbit satellites could be collected and potentially broken by classical means and quantum computers with enough power, QuSecure added. The transmission included a switch over from LEO to a geosynchronous orbit (GEO) satellite and back down to earth, as a model for redundancy in the event of a breach, failure, or threat to satellites in a single orbit.

"As more organizations are increasingly relying on space technology to provide solutions, resiliency and more relevant information, security of those systems and the data is paramount," commented Paul Thomas, space innovation lead for technology innovation at Accenture.

NCCoE addresses preparing for the adoption of new PQC algorithms

In April, the US National Cybersecurity Council of Excellence (NCCoE), a collaboration of cybersecurity experts from the public and private sectors, released a draft publication addressing preparation for adopting new PQC algorithms. Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography extended the typical message of urgency to plan for migration seen in federal mandates to members of the private sector.

NCCoE said it would be engaging with industry collaborators, regulated industry sectors, and the US government to bring awareness to the issues involved in migrating to post-quantum algorithms and to prepare the crypto community for migration.

PQShield supports PQC migration, advanced side-channel secured implementations

In May, PQC standards company PQShield signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a leading IT Services, consulting, and business solutions organization, to help clients transition to quantum-secure solutions. It also announced a collaboration with eShard, a side-channel analysis and testing tools provider, to further accelerate advanced side-channel secured implementations of PQC that are critical for high-security standards across industries.

"Quantum computers pose a particular threat to large organizations given the sprawling nature of their cryptographic infrastructure and their reliance on secure communications," said Ali El Kaafarani, CEO and founder of PQShield. "We're seeing a significant shift in the commercial landscape as more of these businesses wake up to the urgency of the problem and seek out a solution."

X9 announces initiative to create PQC assessment guidelines

In June, the Accredited Standards Committee X9 Inc. (X9) announced a new initiative to create PQC assessment guidelines to act as a roadmap for PQC transitions. It invited participants to take part in the effort. When completed, the X9 guidelines might be used by an organization as a self-assessment tool, as an informal assessment of a third-party service provider, or as an independent assessment by a qualified information security professional, X9 said. An auditor or regulator might also refer to the assessment guidelines which could form a foundation for crypto agility standardization, it added.

"It will be important to have PQC assessment guidelines available before transitions are underway, for consistency to make the process as smooth as possible and the outcomes optimal," said Michael Talley, chair of the X9F1 Cryptographic Tools working group.

Google readies Chrome for future attacks with quantum-resistant encryption

In August, Google announced it was taking a major step in making web browsing safe from future quantum computers by adding Chrome support for quantum-resistant encryption. Dubbed X25519Kyber768, the new quantum-resistant cryptography will be a hybrid mechanism that combines the output of two cryptographic algorithms to encrypt Transport Layer Security (TLS) sessions.

These are X25519, an elliptic curve algorithm widely used for key agreement in TLS today, and Kyber-768, a quantum-resistant Key Encapsulation Method (KEM). The new hybrid encryption has been made available in Chrome 116, and behind a flag in Chrome 115.

"Google's announcement of shielding encryption keys in Chrome from quantum computers is very forward-looking," said Pareekh Jain, chief analyst at Pareekh Consulting. "Quantum computers' serious adoption is a few years away, but messages have a risk of getting stored now and decrypting later."

NIST publishes draft PQC standards for global framework

In August, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published draft PQC standards designed to form a future global framework to help organizations protect themselves from quantum-enabled cyberattacks.

The standards were selected by NIST following a seven-year process which began when the agency issued a public call for submissions to the PQC Standardization Process. NIST called for public feedback on three draft Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), which are based upon previously selected encryption algorithms.

The public-key encapsulation mechanism selected was CRYSTALS-KYBER, along with three digital signature schemes: CRYSTALS-Dilithium, FALCON, and SPHINCS+. It is intended that these algorithms will be capable of protecting sensitive US government information well into the foreseeable future, including after the advent of quantum computers, incorporated into three FIPS: FIPS 203, FIPS 204, and FIPS 205, NIST said.

CISA, NSA, NIST issue PQC migration resource

In August, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), and NIST published a factsheet on the impacts of quantum capabilities. It urged all organizations, especially those that support critical infrastructure, to begin early planning for migration to PQC standards by developing their own quantum-readiness roadmap.

Quantum-Readiness: Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography outlined how organizations can prepare a cryptographic inventory, engage with technology vendors, and assess their supply chain reliance on quantum-vulnerable cryptography in systems and assets. The factsheet also provides recommendations for technology vendors whose products support the use of quantum-vulnerable cryptography.

"PQC is about proactively developing and building capabilities to secure critical information and systems from being compromised through the use of quantum computers," said Rob Joyce, director of NSA cybersecurity. "The transition to a secured quantum computing era is a long-term intensive community effort that will require extensive collaboration between government and industry. The key is to be on this journey today and not wait until the last minute."

Tech community launches PQC Coalition to drive understanding, adoption

In September, a community of technologists, researchers, and expert practitioners launched the PQC Coalition to drive progress toward broader understanding and public adoption of PQC algorithms. Founding coalition members include IBM Quantum, Microsoft, MITRE, PQShield, SandboxAQ, and the University of Waterloo.

The PQC Coalition will apply its collective technical expertise and influence to facilitate global adoption of PQC in commercial and open-source technologies. Coalition members will contribute their expertise to motivate and advance interoperable standards and technical approaches and step forward as knowledgeable experts in providing critical outreach and education.

The coalition will initially focus on four workstreams:

  • Advancing standards relevant to PQC migration.
  • Creating technical materials to support education and workforce development.
  • Producing and verifying open-source, production-quality code, and implementing side-channel resistant code for industry verticals.
  • Ensuring cryptographic agility.
UK Editor

Michael Hill is the UK editor of CSO Online. He has spent the past 8 years covering various aspects of the cybersecurity industry, with particular interest in the ever-evolving role of the human-related elements of information security. A keen storyteller with a passion for the publishing process, he enjoys working creatively to produce media that has the biggest possible impact on the audience.

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Lattice-based cryptography offers a potential solution to post-quantum encryption challenges through secure key exchange.

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Deep dive into a post-quantum key encapsulation algorithm

02/22/2022

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The Internet is accustomed to the fact that any two parties can exchange information securely without ever having to meet in advance. This magic is made possible by key exchange algorithms, which are core to certain protocols, such as the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, that are used widely across the Internet.

Key exchange algorithms are an elegant solution to a vexing, seemingly impossible problem. Imagine a scenario where keys are transmitted in person: if Persephone wishes to send her mother Demeter a secret message, she can first generate a key, write it on a piece of paper and hand that paper to her mother, Demeter. Later, she can scramble the message with the key, and send the scrambled result to her mother, knowing that her mother will be able to unscramble the message since she is also in possession of the same key.

But what if Persephone is kidnapped (as the story goes) and cannot deliver this key in person? What if she can no longer write it on a piece of paper because someone (by chance Hades, the kidnapper) might read that paper and use the key to decrypt any messages between them? Key exchange algorithms come to the rescue: Persephone can run a key exchange algorithm with Demeter, giving both Persephone and Demeter a secret value that is known only to them (no one else knows it) even if Hades is eavesdropping. This secret value can be used to encrypt messages that Hades cannot read.

The most widely used key exchange algorithms today are based on hard mathematical problems, such as integer factorization and the discrete logarithm problem. But these problems can be efficiently solved by a quantum computer, as we have previously learned, breaking the secrecy of the communication.

There are other mathematical problems that are hard even for quantum computers to solve, such as those based on lattices or isogenies. These problems can be used to build key exchange algorithms that are secure even in the face of quantum computers. Before we dive into this matter, we have to first look at one algorithm that can be used for Key Exchange: Key Encapsulation Mechanisms (KEMs).

Two people could agree on a secret value if one of them could send the secret in an encrypted form to the other one, such that only the other one could decrypt and use it. This is what a KEM makes possible, through a collection of three algorithms:

  • A key generation algorithm, Generate, which generates a public key and a private key (a keypair).
  • An encapsulation algorithm, Encapsulate, which takes as input a public key, and outputs a shared secret value and an “encapsulation” (a ciphertext) of this secret value.
  • A decapsulation algorithm, Decapsulate, which takes as input the encapsulation and the private key, and outputs the shared secret value.

A KEM can be seen as similar to a Public Key Encryption (PKE) scheme, since both use a combination of public and private keys. In a PKE, one encrypts a message using the public key and decrypts using the private key. In a KEM, one uses the public key to create an “encapsulation” — giving a randomly chosen shared key — and one decrypts this “encapsulation” with the private key. The reason why KEMs exist is that PKE schemes are usually less efficient than symmetric encryption schemes; one can use a KEM to only transmit the shared/symmetric key, and later use it in a symmetric algorithm to efficiently encrypt data.

Nowadays, in most of our connections, we do not use KEMs or PKEs per se. We either use Key Exchanges (KEXs) or Authenticated Key Exchanges (AKE). The reason for this is that a KEX allows us to use public keys (solving the key exchange problem of how to securely transmit keys) in order to generate a shared/symmetric key which, in turn, will be used in a symmetric encryption algorithm to encrypt data efficiently. A famous KEX algorithm is Diffie-Hellman, but classical Diffie-Hellman based mechanisms do not provide security against a quantum adversary; post-quantum KEMs do.

When using a KEM, Persephone would run Generate and publish the public key. Demeter takes this public key, runs Encapsulate, keeps the generated secret to herself, and sends the encapsulation (the ciphertext) to Persephone. Persephone then runs Decapsulate on this encapsulation and, with it, arrives at the same shared secret that Demeter holds. Hades will not be able to guess even a bit of this secret value even if he sees the ciphertext.

In this post, we go over the construction of one particular post-quantum KEM, called FrodoKEM. Its design is simple, which makes it a good choice to illustrate how a KEM can be constructed. We will look at it from two perspectives:

  • The underlying mathematics: a cryptographic algorithm is built as a Matryoshka doll. The first doll is, most of the time, the mathematical base, which hardness should be strong so that security is maintained. In the post-quantum world, this is usually the hardness of some lattice problems (more on this in the next section).
  • The algorithmic construction : these are all the subsequent dolls that take the mathematical base and construct an algorithm out of it. In the case of a KEM, first you construct a Public Key Encryption (PKE) scheme and transform it (putting another doll on top) to make a KEM, so better security properties are attained, as we will see.

The core of FrodoKEM is a public-key encryption scheme called FrodoPKE, whose security is based on the hardness of the “Learning with Errors” (LWE) problem over lattices. Let us look now at the first doll of a KEM.

Note to the reader: Some mathematics is coming in the next sections, but do not worry, we will guide you through it.

The Learning With Errors Problem

The security (and mathematical foundation) of FrodoKEM relies on the hardness of the Learning With Errors (LWE) problem, a generalization of the classic Learning Parities with Noise problem, first defined by Regev.

In cryptography, specifically in the mathematics underlying it, we often use sets to define our operations. A set is a collection of any element, in this case, we will refer to collections of numbers. In cryptography textbooks and articles, one can often read:

Let $Z_q$ denote the set of integers $\{0, …, q-1\}$ where $(q > 2)$,

which means that we have a collection of integers from 0 to a number q (which has to be bigger than 2. It is assumed that q, in a cryptographic application, is a prime. In the main theorem, it is an arbitrary integer).

Let $\{Z^n\}_q$ denote a vector $(v1, v2, …, vn)$ of n elements, each of which belongs to $Z_q$.

The LWE problem asks to recover a secret vector $s = (s1, s2, …, sn)$ in $\{Z^n\}_q$ given a sequence of random, “approximate” linear equations on s. For instance, if $(q = 23)$ the equations might be:

[s1 + s2 + s3 + s4 ≈ 30 (mod 23)

2s1 + s3 + s5 + … + sn ≈ 40 (mod 23)

10s2 + 13s3 + 1s4 ≈ 50 (mod 23)

…]

We see the left-hand sides of the equations above are not exactly equal to the right-hand side (the equality sign is not used but rather the “≈” sign: approximately equal to); they are off by an introduced slight “error”, (which will be defined as the variable e. In the equations above, the error is, for example, the number 10). If the error was a known, public value, recovering s (the hidden variable) would be easy: after about n equations, we can recover s in a reasonable time using Gaussian elimination. Introducing this unknown error makes the problem difficult to solve (it is difficult with accuracy to find s), even for quantum computers.

An equivalent formulation of the LWE problem is:

  1. There exists a vector s in $\{Z^n\}_q$, called the secret (the hidden variable).
  2. There exists random variables a.
  3. χ is a distribution, e is the integer error introduced from the distribution χ.
  4. You have: (a, ⟨a, s⟩ + e). ⟨a, s⟩ is the inner product modulo q of s and a.
  5. Given ⟨a, s⟩ + e ≈ b, the input to the problem is a and b, the goal is to output a guess for s which is very hard to achieve with accuracy.

Blum, Kalai and Wasserman provided the first subexponetial algorithm for solving this problem. It requires 2O(n /log n) equations/time.

There are two main kinds of computational LWE problems that are difficult to solve for quantum computers (given certain choices of both q and χ):

  1. Search, which is to recover the secret/hidden variable s by only being given a certain number of samples drawn from the distribution χ.
  2. Decision, which is to distinguish a certain number of samples drawn from the distribution (a, ⟨a, s⟩ + e) from random samples.

LWE is just noisy linear algebra, and yet it seems to be a very hard problem to solve. In fact, there are many reasons to believe that the LWE problem is hard: the best algorithms for solving it run in exponential time. It also is closely related to the Learning Parity with Noise (LPN) problem, which is extensively studied in learning theory, and it is believed to be hard to solve (any progress in breaking LPN will potentially lead to a breakthrough in coding theory). How does it relate to building cryptography? LWE is applied to the cryptographic applications of the type of public-key. In this case, the secret value s becomes the private key, and the values bi and ei are the public key.

So, why is this problem related to lattices? In other blog posts, we have seen that certain algorithms of post-quantum cryptography are based on lattices. So, how does LWE relate to them? One can view LWE as the problem of decoding from random linear codes, or reduce it to lattices, in particular to problems such as the Short Vector Problem (SVP) or the Shortest independent vectors problem (SIVP): an efficient solution to LWE implies a quantum algorithm to SVP and SIVP. In other blog posts, we talk about SVP, so, in this one, we will focus on the random bounded distance decoding problem on lattices.

Lattices (as seen in the image), as a regular and periodic arrangement of points in space, have emerged as a foundation of cryptography in the face of quantum adversaries; one modern problem in which they rely on is the Bounded Distance Decoding (BDD) problem. In the BDD problem, you are given a lattice with an arbitrary basis (a basis is a list of vectors that generate all the other points in a lattice. In the case of the image, it is the pair of vectors b1 and b2). You are then given a vector b3 on it. You then perturb the lattice point b3 by adding some noise (or error) to give x. Given x, the goal is to find the nearest lattice point (in this case b3), as seen in the image. In this case, LWE is an average-case form of BDD (Regev also gave a worst-case to average-case reduction from BDD to LWE: the security of a cryptographic system is related to the worst-case complexity of BDD).

The first doll is built. Now, how do we build encryption from this mathematical base? From LWE, we can build a public key encryption algorithm (PKE), as we will see next with FrodoPKE as an example.

Public Key Encryption: FrodoPKE

The second doll of the Matryoshka is using a mathematical base to build a Public Key Encryption algorithm from it. Let’s look at FrodoPKE. FrodoPKE is a public-key encryption scheme which is the building block for FrodoKEM. It is made up of three components: key generation, encryption, and decryption. Let’s say again that Persephone wants to communicate with Demeter. They will run the following operations:

  1. Generation: Generate a key pair by taking a LWE sample (like (A, B = As + e mod q)). The public key is A, B and the private key is s. Persephone sends this public key to Demeter.
  2. Encryption: Demeter receives this public key and wants to send a private message with it, something like “come back”. She generates two secret vectors ((s1, e1) and (e2)). She then:
  3. Makes the sample (b1 = As1 + e1 mod q).
  4. Makes the sample (v1 = Bs1 + e2 mod q).
  5. Adds the message m to the most significant bit of v1.
  6. Sends b1 and v1 to Persephone (this is the ciphertext).
  7. Decryption: Persephone receives the ciphertext and proceeds to:
  8. Calculate m = v1 - b1  *  s and is able to recover the message, and she proceeds to leave to meet her mother.

Notice that computing v = v1- b1  * s gives us m + e2 (the message plus the error matrix sampled during encryption). The decryption process performs rounding, which will output the original message m if the error matrix e2 is carefully chosen. If not, notice that there is the potential of decryption failure.

What kind of security does this algorithm give? In cryptography, we design algorithms with security notions in mind, notions they have to attain. This algorithm, FrodoPKE (as with other PKEs), satisfies only IND-CPA (Indistinguishability under chosen-plaintext attack) security. Intuitively, this notion means that a passive eavesdropper listening in can get no information about a message from a ciphertext. Even if the eavesdropper knows that a ciphertext is an encryption of just one of two messages of their choice, looking at the ciphertext should not tell the adversary which one was encrypted. We can also think of it as a game:

A gnome can be sitting inside a box. This box takes a message and produces a ciphertext. All the gnome has to do is record each message and the ciphertext they see generated. An outside-of-the-box adversary, like a troll, wants to beat this game and know what the gnome knows: what ciphertext is produced if a certain message is given. The troll chooses two messages (m1 and m2) of the same length and sends them to the box. The gnome records the box operations and flips a coin. If the coin lands on its face, then they send the ciphertext (c1) corresponding to m1. Otherwise, they send c2 corresponding to m2. The troll, knowing the messages and the ciphertext, has to guess which message was encrypted.

IND-CPA security is not enough for all secure communication on the Internet. Adversaries can not only passively eavesdrop, but also mount chosen-ciphertext attacks (CCA): they can actively modify messages in transit and trick the communicating parties into decrypting these modified messages, thereby obtaining a decryption oracle. They can use this decryption oracle to gain information about a desired ciphertext, and so compromise confidentiality. Such attacks are practical and all that an attacker has to do is, for example, send several million test ciphertexts to a decryption oracle, see Bleichenbacher’s attack and the ROBOT attack, for example.

Without CCA security, in the case of Demeter and Persephone, what this security means is that Hades can generate and send several million test ciphertexts to the decryption oracle and eventually reveal the content of a valid ciphertext that Hades did not generate. Demeter and Persephone then might not want to use this scheme.

Key Encapsulation Mechanisms: FrodoKEM

The last figure of the Matryoshka doll is taking a secure-against-CPA scheme and making it secure against CCA. A secure-against-CCA scheme must not leak information about its private key, even when decrypting arbitrarily chosen ciphertexts. It must also be the case that an adversary cannot craft valid ciphertexts without knowing what the plaintext message is; suppose, again, that the adversary knows the messages encrypted could only be either m0 or m1. If the attacker can craft another valid ciphertext, for example, by flipping a bit of the ciphertext in transit, they can send this modified ciphertext, and see whether a message close to m1 or m0 is returned.

To make a CPA scheme secure against CCA, one can use the Hofheinz, Hovelmanns, and Kiltz (HHK) transformations (see this thesis for more information). The HHK transformation constructs an IND-CCA-secure KEM from both an IND-CPA PKE and three hash functions. In the case of the algorithm we are exploring, FrodoKEM, it uses a slightly tweaked version of the HHK transform. It has, again, three functions (some parts of this description are simplified):

Generation:

  1. We need a hash function G1.
  2. We need a PKE scheme, such as FrodoPKE.
  3. We call the Generation function of FrodoPKE, which returns a public (pk) and private key (sk).
  4. We hash the public key pkh ← G1(pk).
  5. We chose a value s at random.
  6. The public key is pk and the private key sk1 is (sk, s, pk, pkh).

Encapsulate:

  1. We need two hash functions: G2 and F.
  2. We generate a random message u.
  3. We hash the received public key pkh with the random message (r, k) ← G2(pkh || u).
  4. We call the Encryption function of FrodoPKE: ciphertext ← Encrypt(u, pk, r).
  5. We hash: shared secret ← F(c || k).
  6. We send the ciphertext and the shared secret.

Decapsulate:

  1. We need two hash functions (G2 and F) and we have (sk, s, pk, pkh).
  2. We receive the ciphertext and the shared secret.
  3. We call the decryption function of FrodoPKE: message ← Decrypt(shared secret, ciphertext).
  4. We hash: (r , k) ← G2(pkh || message).
  5. We call the Encryption function of FrodoPKE: ciphertext1 ← Encrypt(message, pk, r).
  6. If ciphertext1 == ciphertext, k = k0; else, k = s.
  7. We hash: ss ← F(ciphertext || k).
  8. We return the shared secret ss.

What this algorithm achieves is the generation of a shared secret and ciphertext which can be used to establish a secure channel. It also means that no matter how many ciphertexts Hades sends to the decryption oracle, they will never reveal the content of a valid ciphertext that Hades himself did not generate. This is ensured when we run the encryption process again in Decapsulate to check if the ciphertext was computed correctly, which ensures that an adversary cannot craft valid ciphertexts simply by modifying them.

With this last doll, the algorithm has been created, and it is safe in the face of a quantum adversary.

Other KEMs beyond Frodo

While the ring bearer, Frodo, wanders around and transforms, he was not alone in his journey.  FrodoKEM is currently designated as an alternative candidate for standardization as part of the post-quantum NIST process. But, there are others:

  • Kyber, NTRU, Saber: which are based on variants of the LWE problem over lattices and,
  • Classic McEliece: which is based on error correcting codes.

The lattice-based variants have the advantage of being fast, while producing relatively small keys and ciphertexts. There are concerns about their security, which need to be properly verified, however. More confidence is found in the security of the Classic McEliece scheme, as its underlying problem has been studied for longer (It is only one year older than RSA!). It has a disadvantage: it produces extremely large public keys. Classic-McEliece-348864 for example, produces public keys of size 261,120 bytes, whereas Kyber512, which claims comparable security, produces public keys of size 800 bytes.

They are all Matryoshka dolls (including sometimes non-post-quantum ones). They are all algorithms that are placed one inside the other. They all start with a small but powerful idea: a mathematical problem whose solution is hard to find in an efficient time. They then take the algorithm approach and achieve one cryptographic security. And, by the magic of hashes and length preservation, they achieve more cryptographic security. This just goes to show that cryptographic algorithms are not perfect in themselves; they stack on top of each other to get the best of each one. Facing quantum adversaries with them is the same, not a process of isolation but rather a process of stacking and creating the big picture from the smallest one.

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FrodoKEM is a post-quantum KEM based on Learning With Errors (LWE).

The transition to post-quantum encryption is expected to take about a decade or more.

Developing post-quantum encryption requires international cooperation and investment.

The US National Institute will release four approved post-quantum cryptography standards next year.

Title:

Content: FINANCIAL TIMES
Quantum computing.
Is it time to get serious about it?
The old joke that quantum computing is the technology of the future — and will remain so forever — is no longer funny.
The engineering challenges of building a quantum computer powerful enough to fulfill its extraordinary theoretical promise remain enormous.
But early prototypes are evolving rapidly and the future may come faster than expected.
Every data-rich body should start thinking about how to move into a quantum world, as the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology is set to release encryption standards for the post-quantum era next year.
Quantum computers, which exploit the frightening behavior of subatomic physics, operate differently from conventional computers, expanding the range of possible solutions to many problems.
Some companies are exploring the potential of hybrid methods, combining the current capabilities of primitive quantum computers and their classical counterparts to improve port logistics, airline schedules, grocery delivery, and TV ad programming, for example.
Alan Baratz, CEO of DWave, an American quantum computing company, said: “Quantum has become real today.
But serious threats to quantum computing may emerge faster than its potential.
Security experts warn of the dangers of QDay, when a quantum computer may be able to hack into the RSA encryption system, widely used by tech companies, banks and governments in their data.
Earlier this month, the heads of the intelligence agency Five Eyes, which included the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, warned of the dangers of China ’ s activities in quantum computing, artificial intelligence and synthetic biology.
Ken McCallum, director general of MI5, said: “If you ’ re close to the latest technologies, you may not be interested in geopolitics, but geopolitics is interested in you. ”
Since 1994, when mathematician Peter Shore wrote an algorithm that could run on an as-yet-uninvented quantum computer to hack the RSA system, security experts have been concerned about the world ’ s digital secrets.
It may take another decade (or more) before we have a quantum computer stable enough to run Shore ’ s algorithm, but we can never be sure when that day will come.
However, this is one of those rare technological fields, when the solution anticipates the problem.
Since 2016, the US National Institute has been ordering and evaluating anti-cryptography.
Four approved standards will be released next year, which will then be replaced by other agencies around the world.
According to Ilham Kashefi, chief scientist at the UK ’ s National Centre for Quantum Computing, it would be “very worrying ” if any organisation held sensitive data that was not really prepared for the threat posed by QDay.
Speaking at the Ceftaid summit earlier this month, she said: “You should be very concerned. ”
One concern, Kashefi said, is that adversaries can harness data today and decrypt it later when quantum computers have evolved.
That may not matter if the old data hacked are daily supermarket sales records.
But it will be different if the data contains health records or sensitive personal information.
Switching from one crypto system to another across thousands of organizations will take years to implement.
That ’ s why internet experts are urging companies to start thinking now about how to adopt the NIST crypto standard.
The transition to a quantum resistant world would be a win-win for some cybersecurity companies.
That ’ s what BQ Shield, an Oxford-based startup that recently held an expert conference to examine whether NIST ’ s mathematical drafts can work in the “bad ” hardware world.
The good news, according to Ali al-Qafarani, founder of BQ Shield, is that it can.
He said to me, “Is there a perfect security solution at all?
He never exists.
"But my personal view is that these schemes are very secure, powerful and very difficult to penetrate, whether on a classical or quantum computer."
When I spoke with Shore earlier this year, he predicted that the quantum computer needed to run his algorithm might still be several decades away.
But in the meantime, he composed a poem to explain the quantum puzzle:
"If the computers you are building are quantitative,
Spies from all factions will want it.
All our symbols will fail.
They'll read all of our e-mails.
Until we get quantum cryptography, and scare them with its power. ”
Publish it.
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Introducing Quantum Computing: The Future of Technology

Quantum computing, a fascinating field that has been making waves in the tech community, holds the key to a future of unprecedented computational power. As scientists and engineers dive deeper into quantum mechanics, the theoretical foundations of quantum computing, we are inching closer to a reality where complex problems can be solved at an astonishingly rapid pace.

In simple terms, quantum computing is the use of quantum bits, or qubits, to process and store information. Unlike classical bits, which can only exist as either a 0 or a 1, qubits can exist in multiple states simultaneously. This phenomenon, known as superposition, allows quantum computers to perform computations in parallel, making them exponentially faster than their classical counterparts.

One of the most exciting applications of quantum computing is its potential to revolutionize cryptography. By leveraging the power of qubits, quantum computers could break existing cryptographic algorithms, exposing sensitive information. This has spurred a race within the tech industry to develop quantum-resistant encryption methods that can withstand the computational prowess of quantum machines.

Another area where quantum computing could have a significant impact is drug discovery. The complexity of simulating molecular interactions and analyzing potential drug compounds is a bottleneck in the development of new treatments. Quantum computers, with their ability to simulate vast numbers of states simultaneously, could accelerate this process and lead to more effective medications.

FAQ

Q: How does quantum computing differ from classical computing?

Quantum computing utilizes qubits, which can exist in multiple states simultaneously, while classical computing relies on classical bits that can only be either 0 or 1.

Q: What is the potential impact of quantum computing on cryptography?

Quantum computers have the potential to break existing cryptographic algorithms, necessitating the development of quantum-resistant encryption methods.

Q: In what other areas could quantum computing be applied?

Quantum computing holds tremendous promise in fields like drug discovery, where the ability to simulate complex molecular interactions could accelerate the development of new medications.

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threatening national security through breaking encryption

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HOMEPAGE

Industries can get ahead of quantum's future decryption potential right now

By Scott Crowder, Vice President, IBM Quantum Adoption and Business Development

Quantum computers are maturing quickly. And we see their rapid development as an important opportunity to potentially solve business problems that could revolutionize fields from medicine to finance. But this rapid development also brings risk: Future quantum computers could crack the encryption schemes that safeguard valuable data, like health records and financial data.

As we work to bring about quantum computers that deliver practical advantages over today's computers, we also must ensure that we continue to protect sensitive systems and data. One immediate concern: 'Harvest-now, hack-later' attacks — where sensitive encrypted data is stolen today for decryption using future quantum computers. This is especially critical for governments and highly regulated industries like finance, healthcare, and telco. In fact, 83% of organizations have experienced more than one data breach in their lifetime, according to IBM's 2022 Cost of a Data Breach Report. The good news is that quantum-safe cryptography, capable of protecting this information, exists today. And government and industry are taking notice.

In May, the White House released a memorandum laying out the administration's plan for securing critical systems against potential quantum threats. In July, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced four quantum-safe algorithms for post-quantum cryptographic standardization, which they expect to finalize by 2024. Three of these algorithms were developed by IBM scientists, in collaboration with industry and academic partners. And last month, the US government issued directions on migrating to quantum-safe cryptography to its agencies.

In September, telecommunications industry organization GSMA formed a Post-Quantum Telco Network Taskforce — which IBM and Vodafone joined as initial members — to help define processes to protect telcos from this quantum future. The World Economic Forum recently estimated that more than 20 billion digital devices will need to be either upgraded or replaced in the next 10-20 years to support these new forms of quantum-safe encrypted communication.

To help speed up the understanding and prioritization of what data to protect first, IBM recently demonstrated the first Cryptography Bill of Materials. Like the Software Bill of Materials concept from software supply chains, IBM's "CBOM" simplifies the cryptography inventory assessment across software, services, and infrastructure to identify needed cryptographic components.

Moving to quantum-safe cryptography

Cryptographic standards rely on problems easy for a computer to check but hard to solve. For example, classical computers have a hard time factoring large numbers, but can easily check that two prime numbers multiply together to result in some large number. So, modern encryption methods often use large numbers as codes, such that their prime factors form a key.

However, in 1994, mathematician Peter Shor developed an algorithm that could quickly factor large prime numbers. His namesake algorithm showed a way to crack these codes with fault-tolerant quantum computers. Today's quantum computers aren't yet capable of using Shor's algorithm to factor the numbers used today, but that could change as quantum computers advance in scale, quality, and speed.

With 'quantum advantage' on the horizon, business leaders should prepare for how they could benefit. But they should also understand the risk of future fault-tolerant quantum computers, and explore quantum-safe cryptography to protect their data and systems.

We may not know exactly when it will be possible to breach today's encryption, but one thing is clear: Any data that falls into the wrong hands before an organization transitions to quantum-safe cryptography should be considered lost. And computer systems that need to operate securely without major modifications over time — like the computers in cars, or embedded in satellites — will need to be quantum-safe. Can you afford to wait?

Learn more about the importance of quantum-safe cryptography in the digital economy.

This post was created by IBM with Insider Studios.

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Forrester report reveals ‘baby steps’ towards post-quantum encryption – Arqit comments

July 2024 by

Despite high-level awareness and mounting concerns about the impending quantum threat, a new Forrester report reveals that security leaders are still "taking baby steps" towards implementing post-quantum encryption (PQE), waiting for further developments, standards, and guidance. The report highlights the urgent need for organisations to prepare for Q-Day – the day when quantum computers will be capable of breaking current encryption methods.

Forrester observed that industry progress on PQE implementation has been slow. Although 71% of surveyed security leaders feel knowledgeable about quantum computing as an emerging technology, only 21% rank it among their top concerns. This underscores a significant gap between awareness and progress.

David Williams, Founder of Arqit, believes transitioning to quantum-safe encryption is non-negotiable for organisations:

"We talk about ’Q-Day’, but the threat to encryption is not in the future – it’s here right now. Hackers are already harvesting data for future decryption and release. Just last month, a group of criminals published extremely sensitive patient data online, including cancer blood test results, following an earlier cyberattack on an NHS testing database. But unfortunately, this report confirms what we all suspected – the risk is recognised, but follow-through in the Enterprise sector is lacking. Frankly, that’s like smelling smoke but waiting to see flames before evacuating.

"What we do know, from projects that Arqit has been able to announce and others, is that Government organisations are responding to The White House NSM-10 instruction and are implementing symmetric key protections now and others around the World are doing the same. Telecoms companies are also implementing symmetric key protections this year. This puts Arqit in a unique position because we have been able to demonstrate and announce that Arqit alone has software that creates quantum safe symmetric keys at end points that meet the requirements of relevant NSA CSFC and NIAP standards or components.

“Enterprises must act now, not take ’baby steps’. The White House has already urged NSS users to deploy symmetric key protections because new PQAs are not regarded as likely to achieve sufficient maturity in time. Why should large enterprises with critical infrastructure or information think differently? By waiting for new guidelines or industry progress, enterprises have become sitting ducks. Symmetric Key Agreement is the immediate answer to the problem and Arqit’s product is available globally through Intel, Fortinet, Juniper and others. When implemented as part of a zero-trust framework, this approach is entirely future-proof – removing the need for constant and costly upgrades as quantum computing advances, and also removes immediate threat vectors like spoofing because it delivers continually rotating authentication.

"It’s unrealistic to rely on a hope that quantum computers won’t break encryption within 3-5 years. Betting on a hunch that human progress will stall isn’t a rational way to protect critical data assets. Organisations need a solid strategy for data security, with symmetric keys at its core.”

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Lessons learned include the need for crypto-agility, centralized management, and enterprise-wide oversight.

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A Question Of Biggitude: Your Organization’s Cryptography

CTO and co-founder at ISARA Corporation. Focused on technology for crypto agility and quantum safety.

How many grains of sand are there in the world? You have likely asked this at some point in your life. The enormity of that number is mind-boggling. Author David Blatner wrote about such wonders in Spectrums: Our Mind-Boggling Universe from Infinitesimal to Infinity. With numbers so high, Blatner says we “can’t handle the biggitude.”

Like the grains of sand in the world, cryptography is everywhere — and sometimes it’s challenging for organizations to keep track of. It’s a question of biggitude. Cryptography is at the core of every secure transaction, every safe automobile, every form of communication. Think about when you send money to a friend, check your email or make a purchase online. Our fast-moving world is dependent on encryption, a critical component of every layer of the computing architecture — hardware, operating systems, network protocols, applications — found on-premises, in the cloud, in mobile, distributed or on connected devices in the internet of things (IoT). Why is this pervasive set of technologies that we’ve been relying on since the 1970s, but never paid too much attention to, suddenly needing our attention?

To address security threats, minimize risks and future-proof systems, especially with cryptographic standards in flux and updates by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) about new standards coming in late 2021, it’s paramount for enterprises to embrace a centralized approach to cryptographic management. Imagine how difficult it can be for enterprises to inventory their cryptography assets across entire infrastructures when much of it’s hidden, outdated or housed within a third-party organization. It’s a resource-heavy and time-consuming task that, by the time it’s finished, generates information that’s no longer fresh and requires the process to start over again.

Implementing A Cryptographic Center Of Excellence To Help Meet Challenges

Can establishing and implementing a cryptographic center of excellence (CryptoCoE) help? As organizations prepare for incoming cryptographic transitions, prioritizing cryptographic management is a critical success factor. One of the largest cryptography transitions in history will be the one from classical to quantum-safe cryptography. The looming quantum computer threat to encryption has led some organizations to embark on implementing a CryptoCoE to mitigate cryptographic threats.

Threats to cryptography, such as quantum computing, will have a significant — even detrimental — impact on every modern business. The fact that migration takes a long time adds to the challenge, making strategic, long-term planning a must.

According to one of our global finance partners in Switzerland, one of the key issues is the lack of visibility into cryptography; you can’t quantify the risk of something you’re not aware of, let alone manage it. This bank has implemented a cryptographic center of excellence, which I think is a great idea since the larger an enterprise, the more difficult it is to have central governance.

Here’s what’s at stake: Cryptographic changes, such as public key infrastructure (PKI) migration, from classic to quantum-safe standards, are massive and disruptive in size, scope and complexity. Chief information security officers (CISOs) often have no visibility into their organization’s cryptographic posture, with limits the ability to articulate the footprint and scope of the infrastructure impacted. This makes it complicated to make the case for additional resources and budget.

Similarly, IT departments often have little visibility into cryptographic configurations and the cryptography in operation across hundreds of thousands of live transactions. Getting a grasp of the cryptographic posture is often a tedious, manual effort that doesn’t allow for insights into the cryptography in use. Meanwhile, organizations face incredible scrutiny to meet regulatory compliance.

The Cryptographic Management Challenge Is Manageable

Rest assured, the cryptography management challenge, while immense, is manageable. For starters, what’s required, according to the chief architect at the financial institution I mentioned, is board-level and C-level visibility and enterprise-wide oversight. Leaders need a regular, comprehensive report of the scope of the issues and threats, the impact and the solutions and path to enable sustainable, forward-moving business. Being able to migrate between the emerging crypto standards in a repeatable, manageable and cost-effective way is critical in achieving crypto-agility.

Organizations should be able to enforce cryptographic policies across all infrastructures and reign in the silos. Enterprise-wide support, including the C-suite embracing a CryptoCoE, will help get all stakeholders on board. Ultimately, this will help to answer the questions of, “What cryptography do you have in your organization?” and “What’s a priority to be fixed, upgraded or replaced, and when?”

As for the question of how many grains of sand there are in the world: “If you assume a grain of sand has an average size and you calculate how many grains are in a teaspoon and then multiply by all the beaches and deserts in the world, the Earth has roughly (and we’re speaking very roughly here) ... seven quintillion, five hundred quadrillion grains,” states Robert Krulwich, science correspondent for NPR.

Keeping track of your cryptography can be infinitely more manageable than counting grains of sand.

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CTO and co-founder at ISARA Corporation. Focused on technology for crypto agility and quantum safety. Read Mike Brown's full executive profile here.

CTO and co-founder at ISARA Corporation. Focused on technology for crypto agility and quantum safety. Read Mike Brown's full executive profile here.

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Quantum computers use Q# and Qiskit for programming.

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Content: State of the Art Quantum Chemistry in 2022

Quantum chemistry is very hard. The best quantum computing chemistry seems to be at the level of 12 qubits / 12 atoms. Supercomputer simulations can handle 20 qubits and 20 atoms simulation. There are early papers that suggest classical supercomputers can get to 100 atoms and 1000 qubit for some types of simulation. Quantum computers are pushing up to 35 high fidelity trapped ion and there is work to achieve superior error mitigation and error suppression and eventual error correction with quantum computers. Breakthroughs in algorithms for supercomputers and for quantum systems are continuing and there are many competitors with different quantum technologies looking to make breakthroughs to scale to thousands and millions of qubits and to develop superior and more efficient error management.

There was a paper in 2022 where quantum simulations on the Sunway supercomputer was performed. At the current stage, classical simulation of quantum computation is crucial for the study of quantum algorithms and quantum computing architectures, especially for heuristic quantum algorithms as VQE. The largest VQE experiment performed on a quantum computer up to date has used 12 qubits. An industrially relevant quantum computational advantage in quantum chemistry is expected to appear at around 38 ≤ N ≤ 68 qubits (under the assumption of error-corrected qubits), which is related to an electronic structure problem including
19 ≤ N ≤ 34 electrons.

Compared to RQC (Random Quantum Circuits), VQE (variational quantum eigensolver) is much more demanding for both quantum and classical computers, for example, the number of CNOT gates involved in a typical quantum computational chemistry simulation quickly goes beyond 1 million with commonly used physically motivated ansatz such as unitary coupled-cluster (UCC). Moreover, the parametric quantum circuit has to be executed many times as is typical for variational algorithms. These effects limit most of the current investigations of VQE using classical computers to very small problems (less than 20 qubits). Unleashing the Julia programming language on Sunway architectures and running it efficiently over 20 million cores is also an extremely challenging task. The 2022 work has set the standard for large-scale classical simulation of quantum computational chemistry, and paves the way for benchmarking VQE applications on near-term noisy quantum computers.

Q2 Chemistry is suitable for large-scale simulation of quantum computational chemistry, based on a combination of the Density Matrix Embedding Theory and the Matrix Product States to reduce the exponentially memory scaling against the system size; a customized three-level parallelization scheme has been implemented according to the nature of the physical problem and the many-core architecture; Julia is used as the primary language which both makes programming easier and enables cutting edge performance close to native C or Fortran; Real chemical systems have been studied to demonstrate the power of Q2Chemistry in computational quantification of proteinligand interactions. To the best of their knowledge, this is the first reported quantum computational chemistry simulation
calculation for real chemical system with as many as 100 atoms and 1000 qubits using DMET-MPS-VQE (and 200 qubits using MPS-VQE), and scales to around 20 million cores. This paves the way for benchmarking with near term
VQE experiments on quantum computers with around 100 qubits.

A new study shows that for problems of real-world interest, such as calculating the energy states of a cluster of atoms, quantum simulations are not yet more accurate than those of classical computers.

The study results show how close quantum computers are to becoming useful atomic and molecular simulation tools for chemists and materials scientists.

Garnet Chan of the California Institute of Technology and his co-workers performed simulations of a molecule and a material using a 53-qubit Google processor called Weber, based on Sycamore.

The team selected two problems of current interest, without any consideration of how well suited they might be to a quantum circuit. The first involves calculating the energy states of an 8-atom cluster of iron (Fe) and sulfur (S) found in the catalytic core of the enzyme nitrogenase. This enzyme breaks strong bonds in nitrogen molecules as the first step in an important biological process called nitrogen fixation. Understanding the chemistry of this process could be valuable for developing artificial nitrogen-fixing catalysts for the chemical industry.

One of the key obstacles to accurate quantum simulations is noise—random errors in both the switching of the “gates” that perform quantum logic operations and in the reading of their output states. These errors accumulate and restrict the number of gate operations a computation can enact before the noise dominates. The researchers found that simulations with more than 300 gates were overwhelmed by noise. But the more complex the system, the more gates are needed. The Fe-S cluster, for example, has long-range interactions between spins; to be represented accurately, such interactions require many gates.

The simulations provided predictions for the energy spectra of the Fe-S cluster and the heat capacity of 𝛼-RuCl3 reasonably well—but only if the simulated systems were not too big. For 𝛼-RuCl3 the team could only obtain meaningful results for a very small 6-atom chunk of the crystal lattice; if they increased the size to just 10 atoms, the noise overwhelmed the output. And the constraints on gate operations meant that only about one-fifth of Weber’s quantum resources could be used for the calculation.

State of the Art Quantum Chemistry on IonQ Trapped Ion

Quantum computation has attracted significant attention for its potential to solve certain computational problems more efficiently than with classical computers, especially since IBM launched the first cloud accessible quantum computer and Google demonstrated quantum advantage. One of its most promising applications is to solve electronic structure problems efficiently: to illustrate, consider that for a problem containing N spin orbitals, the number of classical bits required to represent the wave function scales combinatorially with N, while on a quantum
computer only N qubits are needed. The exponential advantage offered by quantum computers has motivated a great deal of research in developing quantum algorithms to solve the electronic structure problem.

The variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) algorithm is designed specifically for current near-term intermediate scale quantum (NISQ) computers. VQE estimates the ground state of a system by implementing a shallow parameterized circuit, which is classically optimized to variationally minimize the energy expectation value. The VQE algorithm allows the user to select the form of the parameterized circuit.

There is a research paper from $2 billion Trapped Ion quantum computer company IonQ. They got a new record with 12 qubits and 72 parameters. If I am not mistaken the Google work with 10 atoms and qubits was surpassed by this IonQ work.

IonQ is currently testing a 35 trapped ion qubit system. Trapped ion should theoretically be able to achieve physically perfect qubits. However, there are other sources of error in the whole system.

The Sunway supercomputer work on classical machines simulating atoms and the IonQ and other quantum systems will continue to push ahead and race to simulating larger and larger physical atomic and molecular systems.

Orbital-optimized pair-correlated electron simulations on trapped-ion quantum computers

Variational quantum eigensolvers (VQE) are among the most promising approaches for solving electronic structure problems on near-term quantum computers. A critical challenge for VQE in practice is that one needs to strike a balance between the expressivity of the VQE ansatz versus the number of quantum gates required to implement the ansatz, given the reality of noisy quantum operations on near-term quantum computers. In this work, we consider an orbital-optimized pair-correlated approximation to the unitary coupled cluster with singles and doubles (uCCSD) ansatz and report a highly efficient quantum circuit implementation for trapped-ion architectures. We show that orbital optimization can recover significant additional electron correlation energy without sacrificing efficiency through measurements of low-order reduced density matrices (RDMs). In the dissociation of small molecules, the method gives qualitatively accurate predictions in the strongly-correlated regime when running on noise-free quantum simulators. On IonQ’s Harmony and Aria trapped-ion quantum computers, we run end-to-end VQE algorithms with up to 12 qubits and 72 variational parameters – the largest full VQE simulation with a correlated wave function on quantum hardware. We find that even without error mitigation techniques, the predicted relative energies across different molecular geometries are in excellentagreement with noise-free simulators.

Is there evidence of exponential quantum Advantage in Quantum chemistry.

Abstract
The idea to use quantum mechanical devices to simulate other quantum systems is commonly ascribed to Feynman. Since the original suggestion, concrete proposals have appeared for simulating molecular and materials chemistry through quantum computation, as a potential “killer application”. Indications of potential exponential quantum advantage in artificial tasks have increased interest in this application, thus, it is critical to understand the basis for potential exponential quantum advantage in quantum chemistry. Here we gather the evidence for this case in the most common task in quantum chemistry, namely, ground-state energy estimation. We conclude that evidence for such an exponential advantage across chemical space has yet to be found. While quantum computers may still prove useful for quantum chemistry, it may be prudent to assume exponential speedups are not generically available for this problem.

Researchers from Berkeley and elsewhere examined the case for the exponential quantum advantage (EQA) hypothesis for the central task of ground-state determination in quantum chemistry. The specific version of EQA that they examined required quantum state preparation to be exponentially easy compared to classical heuristics, and for classical heuristics to be exponentially hard. Their numerical simulations highlight that heuristics are necessary to achieve efficient quantum ground-state preparation. At the same time, they do not find evidence for the exponential scaling of classical heuristics in a set of relevant problems. The latter suggests that quantum state preparation can be made efficient for the same problems. However, as EQA is based on the ratio of costs, this does not lead to EQA.

Numerical calculations are not mathematical proof of asymptotics with respect to size and error, nor can they exclude EQA in specific problems. However, their results suggest that without new and fundamental insights, there may be a lack of generic EQA in this task. Identifying a relevant quantum chemical system with strong evidence of EQA remains an open question. They did not consider tasks other than ground-state determination, nor do they rule out polynomial speedups. Depending on the precise form, polynomial quantum speedups could be associated with useful quantum advantage, as even a polynomial classical algorithm does not mean that solutions can be obtained in a practical time. Both aspects may prove important in the further development of quantum algorithms in quantum chemistry.

What are important areas in quantum research?

Julia is used for quantum software development, providing a flexible and efficient platform.

What are important areas in quantum research?

Q2Chemistry is suitable for large-scale quantum simulations of complex chemical systems.

IonQ is testing a 35-qubit system.

IonQ is testing a 35-qubit system.

IonQ is testing a 35-qubit system.