Quantum Blockchain engages D-Wave quantum cloud technology

Quantum Blockchain Technologies announced on Tuesday that it will use the ‘Leap’ quantum cloud service from D-Wave Systems to develop cryptography algorithms for cryptocurrency mining.

The AIM-traded firm said it would be able to access D-Wave’s “quantum-classical hybrid solvers”, which it said leverage both quantum solutions and “best-in-class” classical algorithms to run large-scale business-critical problems.

With real-time access to quantum computers via the cloud, the company said it was aiming to transform classic computing cryptography algorithms, such as the one used for Bitcoin mining, in quantum computations, or quantum-classic hybrid computations.

Quantum Blockchain said its quantum computing team was working on the Leap platform with the goal to exploit the speed of quantum computations, which could be, under “appropriate conditions”, several orders of magnitudes faster than a classic computer.

D-Wave’s new quantum computer, Advantage, included more than 5,000 qubits and 15-way qubit connectivity, the board explained.

It said more qubits and richer connectivity would provide programmers and businesses access to a “larger, denser, and more powerful” graph for building commercial quantum applications.

The hybrid solver services in the Leap platform combined Advantage with classical resources, which the firm said would enable the building, running and solving of complex, large-scale business-critical problems with up to one million variables.

Quantum Blockchain said it had already created a team, which had started working on the conversion of optimised cryptographic algorithms, in order to make them suitable to run on D-Wave’s quantum system and quantum hybrid solvers.

“Quantum Blockchain is delighted to work with the D-Wave team, which we believe will provide us with an alternative approach to the computation of cryptographic algorithms,” said chief executive officer and executive chairman Francesco Gardin.

“We have selected what we believe is a major international consolidated player in the quantum computing market and we look forward to working with them during the first phase of the project.

“In particular, we are excited to have the benefit of utilising D-Wave’s Advantage quantum processor, with more than 5,000 qubits where we intend to develop our optimised cryptographic algorithms.”

At 1011 BST, shares in Quantum Blockchain Technologies were flat at 1.08p.