Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC) has launched the world’s first cloud-based Quantum Random Number Generation (QRNG) Service with integrated verification for the user.

Randomness is an essential and ubiquitous raw material in almost all digital interactions and is also used in cybersecurity to encrypt data and communications and perform simulation analysis across many sectors, including the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, chemical engineering, finance and gaming industries.

The application developed by CQC generates true maximal randomness, or entropy, implemented on an IBM Quantum Computer that can be verified and thus certified as truly quantum – and therefore truly and maximally random – for the first time. This cannot be accomplished on a classical computer.

As part of a joint effort with IBM, the beta certifiable Quantum Random Number Generation (“cQRNG”) Service, which is the first quantum computing application, will initially be available to members of the IBM Q Network, a community of more than 100 Fortune 500 companies, academic institutions, startups and national research labs working with IBM to advance quantum computing.

Quantum Computing Milestones

“This is an exciting step toward making quantum computers practical and useful, and we are looking forward to seeing what scientists and developers can create using this service,” said CQC’s IBM partner lead, Anthony Annunziata, director of the IBM Q Network.

Working with IBM, CQC has attained two quantum computing milestones: one in computational terms and the other in the commercialization of quantum computing where, for the first time, with the cloud delivery of an application for quantum computers, they provide a service that has real-world application today.

From classical and post-quantum cryptography to complex Monte Carlo simulations where vast amounts of entropy are required to eliminate hidden patterns, certifiable quantum randomness will provide a new opportunity for advantage in relevant enterprise and government applications.

Extracting verified random numbers from a quantum processor has been an industry aspiration for many years. Many current methods only generate pseudo-random numbers or rely on physical phenomena that appear random but are not demonstrably so.

The certified QRNG service launched in partnership with IBM, integrates a Bell test based on Mermin inequalities, offered through the Qiskit module qiskit_rng, which validates the true quantum nature of the underlying processes with statistical analysis. A scientific paper detailing CQC’s research titled “Practical Randomness and Privacy Amplification” has been published here.

“Certified QRNG is a potentially massive market because there are so many applications of the technology that are possible today, including telecommunications, finance, science and more. Cybersecurity in particular is a field that will see many customers in the near term interested in verifiable quantum-generated random numbers,” said Lawrence Gasman, president of Inside Quantum Technology, a leading industry research and analysis firm.

As background, CQC was part of the founding group of startups in the IBM Q Network’s startup program, announced in 2018. IBM invested in CQC in January of 2020. CQC recently became the first startup-based Hub in the IBM Q Network, working with other members on chemistry, optimization, finance and quantum machine learning and natural language processing to advance the industry’s quantum computing ecosystem.

“We are extremely proud and enormously excited by this achievement and are gratified by our continuing partnership with IBM,” said Ilyas Khan, CEO of Cambridge Quantum Computing.