Quantinuum quantum computers have created true verifiable randomness in a project that could be valuable to cybersecurity.
In a paper in Nature, Quantinuum along with JPMorganChase, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Texas have generated true randomness critical to cryptography and cybersecurity. Quantinuum said the latest advance was built on research from Shih-Han Hung and Scott Aaronson of the University of Texas at Austin.
Quantinuum's breakthrough is just the latest in the industry to demonstrate commercial relevance. Earlier this month, D-Wave said its quantum computer outperformed a classical supercomputer in solving magnetic materials simulation problems. D-Wave followed up with a quantum blockchain architecture. IonQ and Ansys said they also outperformed classical computing when designing medical devices.
JPMorganChase noted in a blog post:
"Classical computers cannot create true randomness on demand. As a result, to offer true randomness in classical computing, we often resort to specialized hardware that harvests entropy from unpredictable physical sources, for instance, by looking at mouse movements, observing fluctuations in temperature, monitoring the movement of lava lamps or, in extreme cases, detecting cosmic radiation. These measures are unwieldy, difficult to scale and lack rigorous guarantees, limiting our ability to verify whether their outputs are truly random.
Compounding the challenge is the fact that there exists no way to test if a sequence of bits is truly random."
Conversely, quantum computing features randomness and can run verification much faster than a classical computer.
Quantinuum said it will introduce a new product that can generate these "random seeds." Using Quantinuum's H2 System, the company has been able to deliver a proof of concept that bridges quantum computing and security.
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The company said it will integrate quantum-certified randomness into its commercial portfolio to go along with its Generative Quantum AI and Helios system as well as the hardware roadmap going forward. See: Quantinuum launches generative AI quantum framework, sees quantum computing as synthetic data generator
For Quantinuum, the true randomness breakthrough could give it a key commercial product for enterprises. Helios is in its testing phase and will be available later in 2025. The system is likely to be initially used as part of a cybersecurity portfolio to create a "quantum source of certifiably random seeds for a wide range of customers who require this foundational element to protect their businesses and organizations."
"The quantum industry is scrambling to show what practical valid use cases it can operate in 2025 and beyond," said Holger Mueller, analyst at Constellation Research. "It is not clear which use cases will emerge first, but this work by Quantinuum and partners, shows that horizontal use cases, like the generation of randomness – maybe the first practical use case of quantum computing."
