Last Month at QRL — September 2020

EnQlave audit firm x41 D-Sec starts audit

x41 D-Sec has started their audit of project enQlave, an Ethereum webwallet which allows any user to secure their ether or ERC20 token balances from quantum theft.

x41 D-Sec was one of the two external auditors involved with auditing cryptographic portions of our QRL codebase (report here), so their expertise is fitting for auditing the smart contract code for any possible issues as well. Audits, along with code review and testing coverage, will continue to play a vital role in ensuring the security fundamentals that underpin our codebase. Our previous audits can be found on our github.

The audit has begun and is expected to be completed within the coming weeks.

Insight Research joins QRL

Insight research has joined QRL and work has already begun!

The primary focus will be towards QRL’s Proof-of-Stake network with research into lattice cryptography and signature aggregation. These key elements will allow us to reduce the overall block-size, allowing for a higher number of validators per epoch, and improve its scalability.

Full release coming.

Proof-of-Stake Updates

• Transactions: Tested
• OTS Index Validation: Tested
• P2P code nearly complete
• Code for processing and recording the attestation transaction for the proposed block has been finished

Quantum Computing and Security News

Last month we’ve been witness to massive advances in quantum computing as companies have been on each-others tails improving their quantum volume and decreasing noise bringing us closer to logical qubits.

Sep 9th — Technique prevents errors in quantum computers

Link: https://phys.org/news/2020-09-technique-errors-quantum.html

Sept 12th — China claims quantum leap with machine declared a million times greater than Google’s Sycamore

Link: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3101219/china-claims-quantum-leap-machine-declared-million-times-greater

Sept 14th — Quantum startup CEO suggests we are only five years away from a quantum desktop computer

Link: https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/14/quantum-startup-ceo-suggests-we-are-only-five-years-away-from-a-quantum-desktop-computer/

Sept 15th — IBM publishes its quantum roadmap, says it will have a 1,000-qubit machine in 2023

Link: https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/15/ibm-publishes-its-quantum-roadmap-says-it-will-have-a-1000-qubit-machine-in-2023/

Sept 17th — IBM and Cambridge Quantum Computing announce random number generator service

Link: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/ibm-and-cambridge-quantum-computing-announce-random-number-generator-service/

Sept 26th — Ultracold gas exhibits bizarre quantum behavior

Link: https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/ultracold-gas-exhibits-bizarre-quantum-behavior

Sept 29th — Achieving Quantum Volume 128 on the Honeywell Quantum Computer

Link: https://www.honeywell.com/en-us/newsroom/news/2020/09/achieving-quantum-volume-128-on-the-honeywell-quantum-computer

Oct 1st — Startup IonQ drastically ups the quantum computing ante

(Breaking news: Just released today)

Link: https://fortune.com/2020/10/01/ionq-quantum-computer-most-powerful-honeywell-ibm-google/

QRL Mentions

Sept 2nd — Quantum Resistant Ledger, a Post-Quantum Value Store and Decentralized Communication Layer, to have its Ethereum Web Wallet Audited

Link: https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2020/09/166115-quantum-resistant-ledger-a-post-quantum-value-store-and-decentralized-communication-layer-to-have-its-ethereum-web-wallet-audited/

Sept 12th — When can a quantum computer destroy bitcoin?

Link: https://medium.com/quantum-bits/when-can-a-quantum-computer-destroy-bitcoin-a10cbac911da

Sept 21st — Deterministic Wallets in a Quantum World

Link: https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/1149.pdf