FAQ about Qilimanjaro. Part 2, questions about technology

3 min readJun 15, 2018

Questions about technology

1) Why the decision to focus on Quantum Annealing instead of Quantum Gates?

The main research groups in the world are focusing on quantum circuits that need quantum error correction in order to run useful quantum algorithms. Instead, we focus on an analog quantum computer, a quantum annealer run with coherent qubits, which offers many more practical uses for business. Our goal can be reached sooner on a quantum annealer.

Yet, our technology is flexible enough so that our qubits, flux qubits, can be used for quantum circuit logic as well. Therefore, even though our focus goes into quantum annealing, we keep the longer term goal of exploring quantum logical circuits. We want to be a full player in the quantum race.

2) Are there hackers using quantum computation?

This is not really an issue at this level, since neither present quantum devices, nor present quantum codes are of any use for hacking. It may be argued that hash functions and classical key distribution is somewhere in the distant future.

3) Do you have a Quantum resistant blockchain or plan to have one?

Currently, QBITs are ERC20 on the Ethereum network. Some proposals have been directed by the Ethereum team towards improvements of the structure of Ethereum which potentially can make their blockchain quantum-resistant.

In particular, Vitalik Buterin’s algorithm ZK-STARK modifies ZCash transactions on Ethereum. As he himself puts it: “ZK-STARKs resolve one of the primary weaknesses of ZK-SNARKs, its reliance on a “trusted setup”. They also come with much simpler cryptographic assumptions, avoiding the need for elliptic curves, pairings and the knowledge-of-exponent assumption and instead relying purely on hashes and information theory; this also means that they are secure even against attackers with quantum computers”.

Finally, if the structure of Ethereum does not get to be blockchain quantum-resistant, Qilimanjaro will be looking at integrating the QBITs with potential improvements in blockchain technology that may occur within the actual quantum computing space.

Our main goal will be to make our token secure against quantum computers.

4) How is it possible that energy consumption is lower in quantum computers than in classic computers?

Rather than using more electricity, quantum computers will reduce power consumption dramatically.

Let us consider the relevant example of quantum computers based on superconducting circuits. These devices need to stay at very low temperatures to be operative, near to below 0.01K (-273.14ºC). The cooling procedure requires a special instrument known as dilution refrigerator. Achieving such low temperatures comes at the expense of a certain amount of energy. But once the base temperature is reached, the quantum computer works seamlessly, with a significantly small energy consumption. Being superconducting, the circuits do not dissipate any heat.

The power consumed to reach the lowest temperatures will not depend on the size of the quantum computer. Therefore, there is no true scaling law in qubit number, as opposed to traditional semiconductor classical processors.

So, quantum computers offer a computational advantage over classical machines, besides running with much less energy than the latter.

5) What is Qibo and how can I learn more about it?

Qibo is an open-source high-level API, written in Python and capable of running quantum algorithms on different quantum computers and simulators. Qibo provides a standard interface, allowing the implementation and extension of new algorithms, and eliminating the requirement to adjust the code in order to run different backends and architectures.

6) What are the advantages of using the Qibo language?

The main design goal of Qibo is to offer an easy entry point for quantum programming. Thus, we pick Python, and Qibo can be used as an interface to other quantum languages or libraries. Of course, it will also serve our own machine.

Microsoft, IBM, Rigetti and D-Wave offer their own programming tools. By design, Qibo will support all these environments in a single tool.