Huge wins, major breakthroughs, and Project Eleven’s contribution to PQC performance improvements

The quantum computing world has had no shortage of news and updates, ranging from the Nobel Prize in Physics to intuitive tweaking of encryption methods. This week’s bulletin will cover foundational aspects of quantum computing, new advances in post-quantum cryptography, and areas for possible quantum advantages.

When Circuits Become Quantum: Nobel Prize Celebrates Pioneers of Superconducting Qubits

Last week, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics to three physicists who are responsible for turning quantum computing from a sci-fi novel into reality. Specifically, the experiments they conducted demonstrated quantum mechanical phenomena on a macro-scale, large enough to be held in your hand. The phenomena, which quantum computing is fundamentally contingent on, are quantum tunneling and energy quantization on an electric circuit. This was achieved using a Josephson Junction, a fundamental component for modern superconducting quantum computers. 

Best of Both Worlds: Security and Convenience

Project Eleven has collaborated with JP Aumasson and Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn on an improvement to the ML-DSA standard. In the ever-evolving world of quantum computing, our own development has made post-quantum cryptography more accessible with less overhead. The implementation, called ML-DSA-B, is an open-source improvement that is optimized to decrease overheads. The improved metrics: message pre-hash up to 60x faster, signing up to 20% faster, and verification up to 30% faster.

verification bar
signature bar

The improvements are realized by utilizing the BLAKE3 hash function, authored by our collaborators JP Aumasson and Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn. This aligns well with Project Eleven’s goals of making post-quantum cryptography not only effective against quantum computers but convenient for all to use. Why weigh the trade-offs of convenience and security when you can get both? Well, being realistic, it is a little more of each as post-quantum cryptography inches closer to the best of both worlds. If you would like to read more about this, Project Eleven’s blog has an extensive write-up. 

On The Same Page(r): How Your Mobile Devices May Not Need Embedded Quantum Systems

The clash between classical and quantum may seem like oil and water, but they can mix more than previously thought. A recent pre-print addresses the mathematical underpinnings that could make classical communications and verification compatible with quantum provers. This means quantum transactions could be done using classical technology, such as verifying a bitcoin transaction classically with quantum provers.

Although there are limitations to how efficient this development may be, it shows how quantum technologies may not have to replace classical technology, but integrate with it. It also shows these methods could be resistant to semi-malicious provers (provers with a bad starting position, but that redeem themselves). This way, you could have quantum security but only need classical communication and verification, which are already in use today.

Smaller Circuits, Bigger Advantage: New Quantum Speedup Proposed

Another development in the quantum computing space, as seen in a pre-print involving Craig Gidney, describes a new perspective on quantum advantages. In it, researchers introduced an approach including decoded quantum interferometry (DQI) for optimal polynomial intersection (OPI) that could provably outperform classical computers when it comes to scaling. Using some algorithmic tips and tricks like reversible quantum circuits for Reed-Solomon decoders, along with other developments, have allowed for more optimized and synchronized quantum architectures that decrease qubits and gate costs while attaining much smaller Toffoli gate estimates. It also had an optimal asymptotic speedup, where O(2N) classical time requiring problems can be solved in Õ(N) quantum gates, the theoretical minimum. Where implications are concerned, this would cost four orders of magnitude less than breaking RSA-2048.

How Close Is Too Close?

The trillion dollar question: When is Q-Day? The answer: It depends. It depends on the number of qubits needed to break a 256-bit ECDLP encryption or other method such as RSA. It also depends on the hardware and software requirements to facilitate a long enough runtime to actually break the 256 bits. In the most recent post on Superpositions, a set of assumptions are used as a means to show how likely quantum computing based threats are to be successful and how quickly they could manifest.

The morale of the post is that the security of current encryption holds up, until it doesn't. Capabilities may not be formidable as of now, but as Q-Day nears, less is more. This impacts the Q-Day timeline as more qubits at higher fidelities will close the gap between theory and real-world implications. While adding another magnitude of fidelity for a quantum network is a step in the right direction, each instance of this occurring in the future is a comparatively momentous leap to the previous improvement.

News of the Week

Lattice Semiconductor Ship Industry-First PQC-Ready FPGA Family - Industry preparation for post-quantum cryptography attacks on FPGAs has begun. 

Is Crypto Ready for Q-Day? - Google’s Quantum AI Lab Director Hartmut Neven reinforces that Q-Day could come without warning, and how governments are investing aggressively to not get left behind.

Signal’s Post-Quantum Security Triple Threat - Signal is adding extra layers of defense to stay crypto-agile in a rapidly evolving post-quantum world.

Qunnect Gets Contract Nod From the U.S. Air Force - Qunnect is the first to deploy metro-scale, entanglement-empowered quantum networks using extant fiber optics. A contract from the U.S. Air Force solidifies their position as a scalable, robust platform for defense and commercial use.

D-Wave and IonQ Break Bread in Italy - Two leading quantum computing companies join together to found the Q-Alliance to position Lombardy as the premier quantum hub destination. 


Until next time,

The Project Eleven Team
[email protected]