Interview | Denis Mandich, CTO at Qrypt

Denis Mandich, CTO at Qrypt shared his thoughts on the biggest challenges facing the adoption of Quantum technology in 2021, which industries Denis is seeing the most applications of Quantum currently and his best advice to an enterprise looking to start their Quantum journey.

Can you explain what your company does within the quantum landscape?

Qrypt builds quantum secure cryptographic solutions for the global enterprise transition to post quantum cryptography. The foundation of all cryptosystems is the ability to generate truly random numbers, which can only be guaranteed by quantum entropy sources. Qrypt builds high rate QRNG appliances supporting our post-quantum and quantum-secure cryptographic libraries, which may be used with our SDKs to build software applications. Qrypt has reference apps that do PQC encrypted messaging, file transfer, voice, and video calls.

What has been your biggest challenge in the industry?

Scaling complex quantum physics hardware and sophisticated algorithm performance to meet the demands of modern applications. Engineering quantum-secure systems for operational technologies (OT) in critical infrastructure is constrained by long-lived devices and communications channels. Cross-platform interoperability for IP networks and software architecture are also challenging because they stretch the computational resources of existing devices to do strong encryption.

We have seen the pandemic drive a digital transformation across many verticals; how is this impacting on quantum technologies?

Quantum technologies have only entered mainstream use in the last few years and their promises are not yet realized. However, industry recognition of their disruptive impact is becoming common knowledge among leadership teams. The duality of their cyber risk to networks and higher defensive security guarantees is a challenge for strategic infrastructure planning, especially as more data moves into the cloud. Compliance and standards driven industries have additional challenges complicated by the timing and demands of government mandates. This has motivated early adopters to experiment sooner than required and better prepare for the coming evolution of global networks.

Can you give any good real-world examples of the implementation of your technologies?

As the pandemic has shifted staff to largely work-from-home status, the need for protecting data outside the physical enterprise has never been greater. Qrypt software combined with Entropy-as-Service gives individuals and enterprise the ability to build highly secure air-gapped networks anywhere with an internet connection. The same technology is used to connect industrial control systems to command centers over untrusted and possibly adversarial networks.

Do you think quantum computing will augment or replace classical computing?

It will augment existing compute technology because quantum and classical solve different problem sets. However, quantum computers are an insurmountable market advantage and will create a class of have and have-not companies in those industries. There are problems that can never be solved without them in many fields, which will separate the winners in this race by a very wide margin. As the first generation of quantum-advantage systems come online, access will be limited to a small number of users until enough can be produced and made cheaply available.

Do you see a continuing trend towards M&A between quantum solution providers?

Yes, because there are a finite number of quantum experts and supporting staff with any level of commercial experience worldwide. Until the universities and high schools begin attracting more students into a quantum career-oriented curriculum, it is unlikely the talent shortage will be solved. While a professional degree in physics is not required for many positions, collegiate level exposure to some concepts is essential. Large corporations can grow their bench through acquisitions while small companies, with complementary technologies, will merge.

How are you currently sourcing talent?

Through direct outreach, multiple recruiters, and job postings. Qrypt is a founding member of several quantum industry coalitions and associations where students and experienced job seekers can learn about the industry and search openings at member companies. Qrypt is also helping to develop college curriculums through an NSF grant for quantum-curious students leading to internships and post-graduation positions. Establishing a strategic pipeline is essential for every quantum industry participant’s growth plan and addressed in every forum, both internal and external.

How far off do you think we are from ‘quantum supremacy’?

For cyber security, the question is moot because it will eventually happen, and the amount of data already harvested is a threat to national economic security. For pre-quantum encrypted data, the date has already passed, analogous to almost every other cryptosystem. Any assessment against it happening, assumes there will be no unforeseen breakthroughs in scaling with so many different pathways to achieve supremacy. The most common spurious analogy is to fusion energy, which is always 5-10 years away. However, there is no market need for fusion energy with the large number of cheaper, simpler, easier, and mature alternatives. In stark contrast, quantum computers are a market kingmaker in many industries with immediate demand for known commercial and government applications.

What industries are you seeing the most applications of quantum currently?

For encryption, it is industries with very sensitive data that needs to stay secure for a long time. For example, financial, healthcare, critical infrastructure, government, and trade secrets. The public key infrastructure in use today took twenty years to put in place and is still incomplete. The transition to post quantum cryptography will be more difficult because many existing systems will be unable to support the new software requirements. A large enterprise should expect a phased evolution taking at least five years. Starting early is essential to understanding the challenges and making realistic projections. If a cryptographically relevant quantum computer became available today, a tiny fraction of the world IP assets could be converted in short order. The rest would be at immediate risk.

Where do you see the future global centre of quantum?

The US because there are many well-funded public and private initiatives with validated research documented in the professional literature. Europe closely follows, but China is still an unknown. Their government funding and support for a quantum industry is very high but their publicly available data is low. While the competing technologies will each have their own scaling law and advantages for different use-cases, only a few will scale fast enough to dominate the ecosystems they inhabit.