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Public SectorComplianceJanuary 12, 20267 min read

Closing the Quantum Trust Gap: Why Independent Verification is the Key to Public Sector Adoption

The transition from experimental quantum labs to large-scale public sector deployment is currently hindered by a "Trust Gap"—the reliance on vendor-provided internal logs for performance verification.

SoftQuantus Research Team

Quantum Governance & Compliance Division

Independent Verification

Cryptographically Signed Evidence Bundles

The Challenge

For government and defense sectors, internal technical verification is insufficient for operational auditing and compliance. SoftQuantus QCOS addresses this by providing an independent, cryptographically signed "Evidence Bundle" that validates hardware performance without exposing proprietary intellectual property.

Key Findings

1

Audit-Ready Compliance

Public sector contracts increasingly demand third-party validation that is independent of the hardware manufacturer's internal telemetry.

2

Zero-Knowledge Verification

QCOS allows for verification of result fidelity while protecting both the user's algorithm and the vendor's pulse control sequences.

3

Sovereign Governance

European strategies emphasize "Sovereign Tech," where the control plane is decoupled from the hardware to prevent foreign vendor lock-in.

4

Operational Integrity

Evidence Bundles serve as a "Black Box" recorder for quantum execution, essential for legal and financial accountability.

The European Context

The European Commission's 2025 Quantum Strategy emphasizes the importance of "Sovereign Tech" where control planes are decoupled from hardware to prevent foreign vendor lock-in. This aligns perfectly with QCOS's architecture, which provides:

  • Hardware-agnostic orchestration — Run workloads across any QPU provider
  • Independent verification layer — Third-party audit capability
  • Data sovereignty — Keep sensitive algorithms within European jurisdiction

Evidence Bundles: The Black Box for Quantum

Similar to how aviation black boxes record flight data for accountability, QCOS Evidence Bundles create an immutable record of quantum execution that includes:

Cryptographic hash of submitted circuit
Hardware calibration state at execution time
Raw measurement outcomes with timestamps
Fidelity metrics and noise characterization
Digital signature from independent verifier

Practical Takeaways

For Procurement

Mandate independent verification layers like QCOS to ensure transparency in vendor selection and ongoing operational compliance.

For Vendors

Use QCOS to "de-risk" your hardware for government bids by offering audit-ready proof of performance that meets public sector requirements.

References

  • 1.European Commission. (2025). Quantum Europe Strategy. Brussels: COM(2025).
  • 2.Bitkom. (2025). Position Paper on EU Quantum Strategy.
  • 3.SoftQuantus. (2026). QCOS Evidence Bundles Whitepaper.

Ready to close the trust gap?

Discover how QCOS Evidence Bundles can help your organization meet public sector compliance requirements.