Advertise on podcast: IQT The Quantum Dragon Podcast

I spoke with Dr. Ulrich Hoff, Quantum Engagement Specialist at Kvantify, about Koffee and Qrunch for quantum chemistry, why Qrunch features the variational quantum eigensolver so prominently, the use of Nvidia’s DGX-Spark to simulate 60-80 qubits, onion layers and other analogies, the significance of stressing “practical advantage,” the definition of “intermediate algorithms,” and more. Dr. Ulrich Hoff (LinkedIn) Kvantify (website) Kvantify (LinkedIn) Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony | https://soundcloud.com/makai-symphony Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Dungeons And Dragons by Alexander Nakarada | https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

I try to keep these podcasts to about 20 minutes, but Q-CTRL just has way, way, way too much going on. So go grab yourself a fresh cup of Joe, kick back in your favorite chair, and relax as Alex Shih, VP of Product at Q-CTRL, and I speak about Q-CTRL’s growth, Ironstone Opal for GPS-free navigation, Boulder Opal for quantum control, Fire Opal for error suppression, Black Opal for learning, and so much more. Alex Shih (LinkedIn) Q-CTRL (website) Q-CTRL (LinkedIn) Ironstone Opal Boulder Opal Fire Opal Black Opal I couldn’t find everything I referenced during the recording, but here’s a bunch of stuff I’ve written about Q-CTRL over the years. Now that I look at the list in its almost-entirety, I’ve probably written more about Q-CTRL than any other company, quantum or otherwise. This is definitely not a complete list. 5/25/2026 Q-CTRL’s Fire Opal on IonQ [premium] 3/29/2026 #wellplayed [premium] 3/24/2026 #82: This podcast is out of control. But, fortunately, .... 1/14/2026 Q-CTRL Open Controls [premium] 12/23/2025 The Great “Bring-Up” Debate 10/12/2025 Q-CTRL’s Black Opal’s “Ask AI” [premium] 8/19/2025 Q-CTRL’s Scale Up Removes Pain Points 8/17/2025 You’ve got questions? [premium] 8/5/2025 Q-CTRL’s Quantum Navigating Dragon 4/14/2025 The Q-CTRL-Stumped Dragon 2/4/2025 One of the Most Valuable Learning Resources 1/1/2025 The Dracarys Award: Fire Opal 6/6/2023 Quantum Beast 12/29/2022 Quantum Phase Estimation! 12/27/2022 Grover’s Algorithm with Fire Opal 12/25/2022 Classiq with Fire Opal 12/24/2022 ibm_nairobi vs. Fire Opal 12/19/2022 ibmq_belem vs. Fire Opal 12/15/2022 Review: Q-CTRL Fire Opal 11/23/2022 Quantum Sliced Bread 4/29/2022 What I Learned From Fire Opal… 4/17/2022 Q-CTRL’s Multi-Qubit Circuit Simulator 4/16/2022 Review: Black Opal’s “Programming” by Q-CTRL 4/15/2022 Review: Black Opal’s “Control” by Q-CTRL 4/14/2022 Review: Black Opal “Speedup” by Q-CTRL 3/9/2022 Q-CTRL’s Fire Opal is Awesome 1/8/2022 Practicing with Q-Ctrl’s Black Opal 1/5/2022 Review: Black Opal “Noise” by Q-Ctrl 12/22/2021 Review: Black Opal “Entanglement” by Q-Ctrl 12/21/2021 Review: Black Opal Circuits by Q-Ctrl 12/20/2021 Review: Q-Ctrl’s Black Opal Tutorials 11/5/2021 Why I Believe Q-Ctrl Jay Guilmart, Lead Product Manager of Quantum Computing at Q-CTRL, will be speaking at Q+AI 2026 (3.0): Uncovering the Coming Wave of Quantum + AI, which is coming to New York City October 25-27, 2026. Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony | https://soundcloud.com/makai-symphony Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Dungeons And Dragons by Alexander Nakarada | https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

I spoke with Rebecca Krauthamer, CEO and Co-Founder of QuSecure, about the implications of the post-quantum cryptography (PQC) market splitting between early movers and laggards on the laggards, the bestowing of US military standards for QuSecure’s civilian customers, the difference between NIST standards and US military standards, the benefits of AWS Qualified Software Certification, why Forbes keeps recognizing QuSecure as one of America’s Best Startup Employers, and more. Rebecca Krauthamer (LinkedIn) QuSecure (website) QuProtect R3 QuSecure Careers QuSecure (LinkedIn) #303 America’s Best Startup Employers (Forbes) Rebecca Krauthamer will be a speaker at PQC+IQT, which is coming to New York City on October 26, 2026. Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony | https://soundcloud.com/makai-symphony Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Dungeons And Dragons by Alexander Nakarada | https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

I spoke with Denis Mandich, CTO of Qrypt, about his former-CIA point of view about quantum and cryptography, how Qrypt generates identical keys at multiple endpoints, why a non-certified single QRNG isn’t good enough, how the emergence of entanglement-based quantum networks would change his sales pitch, Nvidia’s role in Qrypt’s non-computing quantum technology, non-cryptographic QRNG applications, and more. Denis Mandich (LinkedIn) Qrypt (website) Qrypt (LinkedIn) Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony | https://soundcloud.com/makai-symphony Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Dungeons And Dragons by Alexander Nakarada | https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

I spoke with Jason Lynch, CEO of Equal1, about the actual size of the Bell-1 silicon spin quantum computer, when we’ll see a breakthrough in qubit counts, quantum networking the devices together, shrinking the system from 22U to 6U, power consumption, democratization, and more. Jason Lynch (LinkedIn) Equal1 (website) Equal1 (LinkedIn) Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony | https://soundcloud.com/makai-symphony Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Dungeons And Dragons by Alexander Nakarada | https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

I spoke with Toby Cubitt, Co-Founder and CTO of Phasecraft about why we need algorithms when we don’t have hardware to run them on, a claim of 43,000,000X greater efficiency, the skillset needed to do what they do, quantum phase estimation (QPE) without controlled unitaries, the secret ingredient of their secret depth-reducing sauce, and more. Toby Cubitt (LinkedIn) Phasecraft (website) Phasecraft (LinkedIn) Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony | https://soundcloud.com/makai-symphony Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Dungeons And Dragons by Alexander Nakarada | https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

I spoke with Eric Hay, Senior Vice President of Field Engineering at Quantum XChange, about single-use private keys, the prevention of retrieval after they’ve been used, secure key exchange, the architectural solution to the potential vulnerability in post-quantum cryptographic (PQC) protocols, the continued use of symmetric keys on the same channels on which they were exchanged, and more. Eric Hay (LinkedIn) Quantum XChange (website) Quantum XChange (YouTube) Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony | https://soundcloud.com/makai-symphony Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Dungeons And Dragons by Alexander Nakarada | https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

I spoke with Matt Rijlaarsdam, CEO and Co-Founder of QuantWare, about trying to be the Intel of quantum, mass production versus custom foundry and packaging services, the advantages of a 3D chip architecture, a bold claim about “exponentially more compute power per watt and per dollar,” the upper limit of qubit density, physical footprints, and driving down prices. Matthijs (Matt) Rijlaarsdam (LinkedIn) QuantWare (website) VIO 40K (news release) Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony | https://soundcloud.com/makai-symphony Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Dungeons And Dragons by Alexander Nakarada | https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

I asked Mr. Carman about teaming up with QuantWare and Q-CTRL to offer the Quantum Utility Block (QUB), Qblox Qubit Lab, Oxford Quantum Circuits’ (OQC) logical qubits, market leadership, physical footprint and power consumption, and the strategy behind hosting webinars. I apologize for some minor audio issues that I couldn’t edit out. Gregg Carman (LinkedIn) Qblox (website) Quantum Utility Block (QUB) Qblox Qubit Lab Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC) Quantum Builders webinars Elevate Quantum and Partners Launch the Nation’s First Quantum Open Architecture System in Colorado Energy Department Announces Partnership with FermiLab and Qblox toManufacture Foundational Quantum Control Platform for U.S. Research and Innovation Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony | https://soundcloud.com/makai-symphony Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Dungeons And Dragons by Alexander Nakarada | https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

I asked Mr. Stimers about the consequences of hype, how the government polices attempts to circumvent export controls and immigration restrictions, the potential for quantum navigation sensors to become mandatory, the current role of diversity in subcontracting, the convergences of quantum and AI and space, and the legalities of selling US quantum companies to overseas buyers. Paul Stimers (LinkedIn) Holland & Knight (website) Quantum Industry Coalition (website) Cantwell, Young, Colleagues Introduce Bipartisan National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act A bill to reauthorize the National Quantum Initiative Act, and for other purposes. National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act of 2026 – Section Summary Powering the Future of Quantum Cold Atom Laboratory DOE Releases Updated Agency Structure and Organization Chart Department of Energy Organizational Chart Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony | https://soundcloud.com/makai-symphony Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Dungeons And Dragons by Alexander Nakarada | https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Filed under: Quantum Policy • Government Regulation • Technology Law

Dr. Walborn and I spoke about the use cases of quantum random number generators (QRNG), self-testing and certification, the underlying mechanism for guaranteeing randomness, API versus on-premises options, and Sequre Quantum’s plans for integrating its QRNG into its own post-quantum cryptography (PQC) and/or quantum key distribution (QKD) solutions. Most importantly, I picked up a new phrase that I am going to use and abuse: “quantum imposter.” Dr. Stephen Walborn (LinkedIn) Sequre Quantum (website) Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony | https://soundcloud.com/makai-symphony Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Dungeons And Dragons by Alexander Nakarada | https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quantum Source popped up on my radar, and I noticed the company is doing things a little differently. It’s using two modalities instead of one. It’s using 3D measurement-based quantum computing, which I’ve only been aware of in 2D. And it addresses one of my long-term concerns about large-scale quantum computers: physical footprint. I had questions about all this and more, and now you’ve got the answers. Oded Melamed, CEO Nati Bar Grinman, Director of Marketing Quantum Source website Quantum Source LinkedIn Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony | https://soundcloud.com/makai-symphony Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Dungeons And Dragons by Alexander Nakarada | https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Quantum Corridor and Toshiba announced the demonstration of the first cross-state Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) over a live commercial metro fiber network, and I had questions about it. What’s the significance of crossing a state line? What was the real-world use case? What do they mean by “no quantum specialists required”? Why are they targeting QKD in the United States? So, we agreed to hop on a podcast together and get some answers. “Quantum Corridor, Toshiba demonstrate first cross-state Quantum Key Distribution over live commercial metro fiber network” Ryan Lafler (LinkedIn), President & CTO of Quantum Corridor Terry Cronin (LinkedIn), VP of Business Development and QKD Evangelist at Toshiba International Corporation Quantum Corridor (website) Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. (website) Quantum Corridor (LinkedIn) Toshiba (LinkedIn) Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony | https://soundcloud.com/makai-symphony Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Dungeons And Dragons by Alexander Nakarada | https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Filed under: Quantum Communications • Network Security • Commercial Quantum Technology

In September, IQM announced an over-$300M Series B, which I suspected made the company a unicorn, so I emailed and got confirmation of that. Then on October 7, I published an article titled “IQM’s Unicorn-Smelling Dragon.” One of the responses to the article was to inquire how IQM did it. So, I reached out to Dr. Jan Goetz, CEO and Co-Founder of IQM, and I asked him. IQM website IQM Resonance IQM Academy IQM (LinkedIn) Dr. Jan Goetz (LinkedIn) Dragon Castle by Makai Symphony | https://soundcloud.com/makai-symphony Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Dungeons And Dragons by Alexander Nakarada | https://creatorchords.com Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/ Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Filed under: Quantum Computing • Startups • Podcast

The latest Quantum Tech Pod with Julien Camirand Lemyre, CEO and Co-founder, Nord Quantique is live! Julian was born in a small town in Quebec called Sutton – a very beautiful environment where he got to a lot of stuff like skiing! He has a PhD in Experimental quantum computation from the University of Sherbrooke and conducted research on fabricating devices for improved quantum computing performance. Julian and his co-founder, Philippe St-Jean, met through their mutual interest in quantum computing and started Nord Quantique in 2020. The key differentiator of Nord Quantique's technology is their approach to quantum error correction using bosonic codes. They use superconducting circuits and leverage the intrinsic redundancy of photon states to create error-corrected qubits. This bosonic code approach allows them to correct errors at the individual qubit level, without needing many physical replicas of qubits. Nord Quantique is currently working with OTI Lumionics, a company that develops LEDs, to test new quantum computing applications for materials science. Julien believes that in 10 years we'll reach a point where fault tolerant quantum computers are sufficiently powerful to be used within an increasingly larger subset of industry processes. Check out this fascinating conversation with Julien! #quantumcomputing #Superconducting #QuantumAndMaterialsScience  #QuantumInCanada Inside Quantum Technology