Homomorphic Encryption Experiments on IBM's Cloud Quantum Computing Platform

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the application of homomorphic encryption on IBM's cloud quantum computer platform, enabling privacy-preserving quantum computations and paving the way for secure cloud quantum services.

Contribution

It is the first to implement homomorphic encryption on a cloud quantum platform, showing practical feasibility for secure quantum computations in the cloud.

Findings

Successfully implemented quantum linear equations algorithm with encryption

Demonstrated privacy-preserving quantum computation on cloud platform

Opened pathways for secure cloud quantum information processing

Abstract

Quantum computing has undergone rapid development in recent years. Owing to limitations on scalability, personal quantum computers still seem slightly unrealistic in the near future. The first practical quantum computer for ordinary users is likely to be on the cloud. However, the adoption of cloud computing is possible only if security is ensured. Homomorphic encryption is a cryptographic protocol that allows computation to be performed on encrypted data without decrypting them, so it is well suited to cloud computing. Here, we first applied homomorphic encryption on IBM's cloud quantum computer platform. In our experiments, we successfully implemented a quantum algorithm for linear equations while protecting our privacy. This demonstration opens a feasible path to the next stage of development of cloud quantum information technology.