Bulletin #20 | Quantum Snubs, Memory Overhead Reduction, and a New Quantum Hub

New developments going the distance, closing the Q-Day gap

Ionic quantum computing companies, Quantinuum and IonQ, are breaking ceilings and bread with new architectures and robust collaborations. From pushing the frontiers of what quantum computing can do to forming collaborations to not only develop but deploy practical applications of quantum computing, the ion modality is making a name for itself. New snubs redirect quantum cryptography and algorithmic improvements make exponential strides in overheads, doing more with less.

Ions Charging to Relevance

With every passing Project Eleven Bulletin, a new development arises. This time, it is in the modality of ionic quantum computers. Quantinuum has developed a new quantum computing architecture with the best metrics by far for most, if not all modalities. It is a synergy of various recent developments such as quantum concatenation codes, classical optimization of qubit logistics, and hardware advancements. Their new architecture, Helios, has strong single and double qubit gate fidelities by leveraging error correction, circuit management, and strong classical control mechanisms. This is cryptologically relevant as it allows for more computation to be leveraged for extending Shor’s algorithm by a few bits, as much as another 10 bits.

IonQ may not have had performance improvement news, but they did have several updates showing their breadth and depth. In addition to having some of the best metrics in the industry, they have collaborated with the University of Chicago and other entities in Switzerland. For the former, IonQ is establishing a partnership with the University of Chicago to make the IonQ Center for Engineering and Science. This further solidifies Chicago as a hub for quantum computing with major players such as IBM, PsiQuantum, Diraq, and Infleqtion in the field, providing their own modalities and solutions. Notably, IBM, Diraq, and IonQ have advanced to Stage B of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking Initiative. In Switzerland, IonQ’s recently acquired ID Quantique, has implemented a quantum network founded on partnerships with Rolex and CERN. Quantum advancements and applications are moving faster than predicted with real world implications coming that much sooner.

LWE-arning New Tricks – Classical Optimization Snuffs Quantum Advantage

A recent development from a pre-print has refuted the notion of a quantum speedup regarding SIS∞. The paper instead fortifies the position of lattice-based cryptography by establishing its competence to quantum threats and that learning with errors and short vector problems are still safe. This is an instance of dequantization where seemingly quantum speedups are attributable to other classical components like optimization or tricks to make methods more effective. Specifically, classical methods improved so that the baseline no longer facilitated a quantum advantage, still enforcing the legitimacy of lattice-based cryptography. It provides an insight into where quantum computers may be practically advantageous by redirecting efforts to other avenues.

Folding Long-Term Memory – Less Overhead, Smaller Key-Size

A newly developed methodology, important for one-shot signatures (OSS), broke the quadratic long term memory constraint and lowered the requirements to a linear trend. It saves time and resources when running one shot signatures by paralleling the signatures for message bits and avoiding bit-by-bit replication. This is achieved with efficient handling of oracles and their projections without needing significant overheads for the signature corrections. It also leverages a new technique that compresses high dimensional structures into linear-size components, thereby greatly reducing key size. These developments further minimize the requirements for practically utilizing post-quantum cryptography, assuming all assumptions are met.

AI, PQC, and Blockchain in Trust Management

A new framework for unifying artificial intelligence, post-quantum cryptography, and blockchain was recently reported, specifically to bolster the industrial internet of things (IIoT). It thwarts attacks, both classical and quantum, through using multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) to manage trust between networked devices and training AI models with federated learning. This is then complemented by applying post-quantum cryptography algorithms like Kyber to make trust management more agile and resistant to threats posed by quantum computing. When benchmarked against real data the throughput of the blockchain was twelve times greater, latency was confined to milliseconds, and ~90% trust classification accuracy was achieved. The significance is blending together several tools, classical and quantum, to keep protected information both resistant to attacks and agile against AI/quantum computing-enhanced attacks. 

Rocketman Goes Quantum - WISeKey’s WISeSat.Space is going public via a $250 million SPAC merger with Columbus Acquisition Corp. to accelerate its post-quantum-secure satellite IoT network. This comes after a recent uptick in interest for tech in space, showing a market to be capitalized.

Cisco vs. Quantum: Fixing the Under - Cisco is developing and deploying infrastructure today to mitigate attacks from AI enhanced, quantum, and hybrid threats in the near future.

Gitting Linux to PQC - It is likely that Linux will be ML-DSA/Dilithium verification compatible for the next kernel to make the kernel module signing PQC secure.

Scaling the Nobel’s Wall - Nobel Laureate John Martinis, of Qolab, HPE, and major chip industry partners have formed a Quantum Scaling Alliance to work towards mass production of quantum supercomputers using advanced microfabrication and classical oversight.

Until next time,

The Project Eleven Team
[email protected]