量子计算进入现实世界商业领域 但尚未能破解实用加密工具

量子计算已经准备好了进入主流部署，可以用于解决现实世界的商业挑战。然而，利用量子技术破解密码和加密代码仍还有一些路要走。

In particular, D-Wave Systems CEO Alan Baratz believes it can take at least another decade before factoring will be viable on quantum computing systems and used to undermine current cryptographic tools.

加拿大量子计算厂商D-Wave系统首席执行官Alan Baratz认为，具体一点讲，至少还需要十年时间才能以量子计算系统开展商业活动及用于瓦解当前的加密工具。

And this was likely the case whether the gate-based system, along with its volatile error correction, or D-Wave's annealing technology was tapped to factor the large code volumes used in cryptography tools, Baratz said in a video call with ZDNet.

Baratz在与记者的视频通话里表示，无论是将基于门的系统以及其易失性纠错还是D-Wave的退火技术用于破解加密工具使用的大量代码，都很可能还需要这么久的时间。

That said, D-Wave had an internal security team that monitored activities on its systems, he revealed, whilst acknowledging that it was still too soon to determine the types of hacking tools that could or had been created on quantum computers.

他透露，不过D-Wave已经建了一个内部安全团队负责监控D-Wave系统上的活动，同时他也承认，现在要确定哪些类型的黑客工具可能或已经用上了量子计算机还为时过早。

The Canadian quantum computing vendor does not specifically focus on cryptography, but its technology has been used to power intrusion and threat detection applications. It also has presence in the US, UK, and Japan, where it has 20 paying customers in the Asian market. Its cloud-based Leap quantum computing application is available in Singapore.

D-Wave这家加拿大量子计算厂商并不特别专注于密码学，但D-Wave技术已经用于入侵和威胁检测应用了。D-Wave在美国、英国和日本也有业务，在亚洲市场则有20家付费客户。D-Wave基于云计算的Leap量子计算应用平台已在新加坡上线。

A Deloitte Consulting report echoed Baratz's views, stating that quantum computers would not be breaking cryptography or run at computational speeds sufficient to do so anytime soon. However, it said quantum systems could pose a real threat in the long term and it was critical that preparations were carried out now to plan for such a future.

Deloitte咨询公司的一份报告和Baratz的观点相若，报告指量子计算机不会在短期内破解密码系统或能够以足够的计算速度运行。报告称，不过从长远来看，量子系统可能会对密码系统构成真正的威胁，现在就必须为这样的未来做准备，这一点很重要。

On its impact on Bitcoin and blockchain, for instance, the consulting firm estimated that 25% of Bitcoins in circulation were vulnerable to a quantum attack, pointing in particular to the cryptocurrency that currently were stored in P2PK (Pay to Public Key) and reused P2PKH (Pay to Public Key Hash) addresses. These potentially were at risk of attacks as their public keys could be directly obtained from the address or were made public when the Bitcoins were used.

Deloitte的报告估计，例如在量子计算机对比特币和区块链的影响方面，流通中的比特币里面25%容易受到量子攻击，报告特别指出，对于那些目前存储在P2PK（Pay to Public Key公钥支付）和重复使用的P2PKH（Pay to Public Key Hash公钥哈希支付）地址的加密货币尤其容易受到量子攻击。由于这些公钥可以直接从地址里获取或在使用比特币时被公开，因而带来潜在的攻击风险。

Deloitte suggested a way to plug such gaps was post-quantum cryptography, though, these algorithms could pose other challenges to the usability of blockchains. Adding that this new form of cryptography currently was assessed by experts, it said: "We anticipate that future research into post-quantum cryptography will eventually bring the necessary change to build robust and future-proof blockchain applications."

Deloitte提出，堵住这种缺口的方法是后量子密码学，但后量子密码学算法可能会给区块链的可用性带来其他挑战。报告还指，目前这种新形式的密码学是由专家来评估， "我们预计，后量子密码学未来的研究最终将导致必要的改变，达到构建稳健和面向未来区块链应用的目的。"

Mathematician Peter Shor in 1994 published a quantum formula that he said could break most common algorithms of asymmetric cryptography. It suggested that, given a large enough quantum computing system, the algorithm could be used to identify a private key that matched its corresponding public key to impersonate digital signatures.

数学家Peter Shor曾在1994年发表了一个量子公式，他称这个公式可以破解大多数常见的非对称密码算法。即是说，给定一个足够大的量子计算系统，该算法就可以找到一个与里面的公钥相对应的匹配私钥，进而可以冒充数字签名。

A team of engineers and researchers in Singapore last year also announced plans to tap quantum cryptography technology to enhance network encryption tools, so these could be ready to mitigate security risks when quantum computing became mainstream. Specifically, they were looking to use "measurement-device-independent" quantum key distribution (MDI QKD) technology and hoped to their research could pave the way to a new class of "quantum-resilient encryptors".

去年，一个新加坡工程师和研究人员团队也宣布了利用量子加密技术增强网络加密工具的计划，计划的目的是在量子计算成为主流时，他们所研究的工具可以为降低安全风险做好准备。具体一点说，他们在研究利用 "独立于测量-设备"的量子密钥分配（MDI QKD）技术，他们希望团队的研究能够为新型 "抗压-量子-加密器 "铺平道路。

### Quantum ready for mainstream enterprise application

量子为主流企业应用准备就绪

While the technology has yet to break cryptography, quantum computing is ready for mainstream adoption and already is tapped to address real-world enterprise challenges.

虽然量子计算技术还不能破解密码系统，但该技术已经准备好了进入主流应用，也确实已经开始用于解决现实世界的企业挑战。

Pointing specifically to D-Wave's proprietary annealing technology, Baratz said this allowed quantum computing to scale more easily and be less sensitive to noise and computational errors, to which gate-based systems were prone. Currently in its fifth generation, D-Wave's quantum computers clock more than 5,000 qubits and capable of supporting commercial rollout "at commercial scale", he said.

Baratz特别提到D-Wave的专有退火技术，他表示，D-Wave的专有退火技术使得量子计算更容易扩展，该技术对噪声和计算错误的敏感度更低，而基于门的系统就容易出现这方面的问题。他表示，目前D-Wave的量子计算机已发展到了第五代，算力达5,000量子比特，能够支持 "商业规模 "的商业推广。

This, he added, was a stage that no other market players had been able to achieve thus far with the gate-based model. Commonly adopted in the industry today, the gate system made quantum computers tough to build and sensitive error. Its most stable state currently generated about 30 qubits, which was sufficient to power mostly research work and unlikely to be used to solve business problems at scale for another seven to 10 years, he said.

他补充表示，迄今为止，D-Wave第五代的算力是其他市场参与者都没有能够用基于门的模式实现的。目前业界普遍采用的门系统用于制造量子计算机的难度很大，而且对错误敏感。他表示，目前这一类量子计算机最稳定的状态大约能达到30个量子比特，用于大部分研究工作够了，但在未来7到10年内不太可能大规模用于解决商业问题。

"Error rates on [gate-based systems] are so high you can't really do anything with them, even with small problems," he added, noting that a competitor last year said it was able to solve a specific optimisation problem on its quantum computer. However, this was possible once out of every 100,000 attempts, he said.

他还表示，"基于门的量子系统的错误率非常高，没法真正用来做任何事情，即使用于解决小问题都不行。"他指出，一个竞争对手去年曾表示能够在自己的量子计算机上解决一个特定的优化问题。但他表示，要尝试了10万次才可能。

Quantum computing runs on principles of quantum mechanics that include probabilistic computation.

量子计算基于量子力学原理运作，其中包括概率计算。

Baratz said annealing technology, designed specifically for optimisation purposes, had a higher influence on the probability of outcomes and, hence, was less sensitive to errors. It also learnt from where it ended with the previous computation to finetune future ones.

Baratz表示，专门为优化目的而设计的退火技术对结果概率的影响较大，因此对错误的敏感度较低。退火技术还能从过去的计算结束的地方开始学习，可以微调未来的计算。

"When you lose coherence, you end up with garbage. With annealing, when you lose coherence, you settle into a [potential] solution and restart the computation to try and improve the solution," he said. Gate-based model, in comparison, could not do that since it would lose coherence after every computation rather than pick off from the previous run.

他表示，"失去了连贯性时，最终就会得到垃圾。退火技术可以在失去连贯性时，停在一个潜在的解决方案里并可以重新开始计算以及改进解决方案。"而相比之下，基于门的模型做不到这一点，因为这种模型在每次计算后都失去了一致性，没法接着之前的运算继续下去。

A grocery using D-Wave to enhance a portion of the customer's logistics system was able to solve an optimisation problem in two minutes per week per location, where previously it took 25 hours per week per location, he noted.

他指出，一家杂货店可以用D-Wave加强客户的部分物流系统，解决每个地点每周的优化问题只需两分钟，而以前解决每个地点每周的优化问题需要25小时。

There currently are more than 20,000 developers worldwide that have signed up to access Leap, with some 1,000 regularly using the service each month. Paying customers fork out an estimated ,000 an hour to run computations on D-Wave computers.

目前，全球已有超过2万名开发者注册使用Leap，每月约有1,000人定期使用该项服务。付费客户在D-Wave计算机上运行计算估计每小时需支付2,000美元。

Baratz noted, though, that its systems could not solve all quantum computing issues because annealing was designed specifically to solve optimisation problems, which were common challenges for businesses. Gate-based systems, on the other hand, would be able to solve any computation problems once the error rates were reduced -- something he said likely would not actualise for at least another seven years.

不过Baratz指出，D-Wave系统也无法解决所有量子计算问题，因为退火技术是专门为解决优化问题而设计的，优化问题是企业面临的共同挑战。而基于门的系统在错误率降低后将能够解决任何计算问题，但他表示，降低错误率很可能至少还需要7年才能实现。

So while D-Wave's annealing-powered quantum computers were limited to solving optimisation problems, they were capable of addressing real-world business challenges today, he said. Its systems also were on a path towards building a universal error correction system by leveraging the technology it had, he added.

他表示，因此，虽然D-Wave基于退火技术的量子计算机仅限于解决优化问题，但这种量子计算机有能力解决当今现实世界的商业挑战。他补充表示，D-Wave系统也可以利用所拥有的技术走构建通用纠错系统之路。

To date, more than 250 applications had been built with D-Wave systems, most of which used Leap and spanned various use cases including financial modelling, scheduling, protein folding, and manufacturing optimisation, the vendor said.

D-Wave表示，到目前为止，已经有超过250个应用的构建用上了D-Wave系统，其中大部分使用Leap，应用涵盖了各种用例，包括财务建模、调度、蛋白质折叠和制造优化等等。