Portal Ventures: About our quantum investment philosophy and how we found Quip Network

For Portal, there is a simple key criterion for supporting a new company: Will the asset still be valuable ten years from now? In this article, we will use our investment in Quip Network as an example to illustrate how we discovered opportunities, built our belief, and invested.

This article introduces our investment philosophy on quantum encryption and our belief that: in the current market, Quip is the most likely solution to bring the on-chain economy into the post-quantum era, with huge upside potential.

The article mainly covers the following sections:

1. No, it is not too early

2. What exactly is the post-quantum era?

3. Crypto × Quantum: Defensive vs. Offensive Opportunities

4. Why is the investment concept in the quantum field so difficult?

5. What should a “good” plan have?

6. Quip: Why it’s the right solution

1. No, it is not too early

Discussions and hot articles about the risks of quantum technology to Bitcoin have not been uncommon recently, and for good reason, because of a simple mathematical problem: approximately 3.5 million bitcoins have not been recovered, including approximately 1.1 million belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto. In other words, there is nearly $300 billion in economic interests, which drives the acceleration of research on quantum computers.

では Quantum Doomsday Clock below, Quip plotted the growth trend of quantum bits (qubits) since 2017, and predicted based on the graph that the first commercially viable quantum encryption attack will occur between 2027 and 2028.

Quip Network: Quantum Doomsday Clock

Moving beyond encryption, IBM’s CEO predicts “major breakthroughs” in the quantum realm in the next 3-5 years. ChatGPT estimates that the threat of quantum technology to banking systems will become a reality between 2027 and 2032, and multiple sources have urged financial institutions to migrate to post-quantum encryption systems by 2030.

Progress is accelerating, as evidenced by the increased density of headlines about quantum computing in 2025 alone:

- Microsoft releases Majorana 1 chip – uses topological quantum bit technology to improve error resistance and system scalability.

- IBM’s 4,158-qubit system – This system connects three 1,386-qubit chips, setting a new milestone in the number of qubits.

- Amazon’s Ocelot chip — developed “cat-state qubits” that can reduce quantum computing errors by up to 90%.

- D-Wave’s “Quantum Advantage” – Solving a materials science puzzle in 20 minutes that would have taken a classical supercomputer nearly a million years.

- Quantum Network at Caltech – Built a prototype of a multi-qubit quantum network to advance secure quantum communications.

- Google’s Willow chip – This chip has 105 qubits, which can exponentially reduce errors and accomplish tasks that would take a supercomputer 10 …

- Distributed quantum computing at the University of Oxford – connecting two independent processors into one system to facilitate distributed quantum computing.

Some may argue that since quantum attacks are expected to occur between 2027 and 2030, the threat is still 2-5 years away. But the point is: you can’t build floodgates after the storm has passed. Both on-chain and off-chain financial infrastructure needs to be resistant to quantum attacks before the first commercially viable quantum attack arrives.

Time available to prepare = time until a quantum attack occurs – time required to implement the change.

Even if there is only a 5% chance that a quantum computer exists that could destroy your entire investment, the financial risk is worth proactively defending against right now.

2. What exactly is the post-quantum era?

I have been fascinated by quantum computing since 2021. At that time, I wrote a popular science article—Whats the big deal about quantum computing?—to explore its potential, application scenarios, and venture capital layout.

Today, the field of quantum computing has made significant progress. Therefore, I wrote the latest sequel, Six Industries About to be Revolutionized by Quantum Computing, and combined with specific examples to help more clearly explain how quantum will drive paradigm shifts in various key industries.

The too-long-to-read version is as follows:

3. Crypto × Quantum: Defensive vs. Offensive Opportunities

Of the industries listed above that quantum computing could impact, some are “defensive” and others are “offensive.” Let’s デフィne them.

• Defensive opportunities: arise from “loss aversion” – the fear that quantum computing will threaten the security of on-chain/暗号 assets, or off-chain/financial assets held in banks.

Examples of the above industries include crypto and financial services/banking (partially).

• Offensive opportunities: from the potential of quantum computing to increase revenue, expand products/services, and drive innovation.

Industry examples include financial services, economic planning, logistics, and materials science.

Does this mean that the only intersection between cryptography and quantum computing is security?

The bigger picture. Indeed, as long as decentralized finance (DeFi) remains the main application in the crypto field, post-quantum security will become standard – it is an infrastructure that cannot be compromised by any protocol. This means that quantum-resistant security alone is related to the $2.7 trillion total addressable market (TAM) in the crypto field.

But the potential goes far beyond that. One of the core values of crypto is its ability to quickly launch decentralized networks of shared resources — like DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network) that allows people and teams who can’t compete with big tech companies to buy Nvidia chips to use GPUs.

This trend toward resource concentration will only get worse with the advent of quantum computers, which are extremely scarce and expensive (IBM’s Quantum System One currently costs about $15 million, for example). While quantum computers will gradually come down in price, it’s safe to say that in the short term, most companies won’t be able to own their own quantum computer, let alone personal devices with quantum processors. But then again, most businesses don’t need to own a quantum computer either—many of their simulations/tasks are “run once and done.”

Therefore, we propose the concept of active encryption x quantum: imagine a quantum DePIN network that aggregates the excess quantum computing power of major companies such as IBM, Amazon, Microsoft, IonQ, Rigetti, etc. Although these companies currently provide pay-as-you-go cloud services, a decentralized quantum network can unlock more possibilities:

• A quantum version of Zapier or Hugging Face with token incentives — crowdsourcing the development of modular tools and workflows for the design and execution of quantum tasks.

• A service network that can provide better and faster capabilities than purely classical computing services.

• A more efficient task-sharing mechanism for quantum computing power vendors that typically provide rental services to nearby customers on an hourly or daily basis.

This is not just a question of “resource access” — it’s about global coordination, performance, and composability.

To sum up, the intersection of encryption and the quantum era brings double opportunities:

• Defensive opportunities: Security needs for on-chain assets worth $2.7 trillion against quantum attacks.

• Offensive opportunity: Creating decentralized networks that allow the masses to harness the “productivity” and “revenue growth” potential of quantum computing.

Quip Network covers the entire opportunity space – starting with defensive opportunities and gradually expanding to offensive opportunities. Its goal is to bring the on-chain economy into the post-quantum era, first providing the most native and seamless post-quantum protection for protocols, custodians, and wallets, and gradually evolving into a decentralized quantum computing network – you can call it quantum DePIN.

4. Why is the investment concept in the quantum field so difficult?

Before I dive in, I want to share how we found Quip. Quantum computing is by far the field that took us the longest time to build our investment thesis and find the right team and investment approach.

As many of Portal’s friends and family know, we have been looking to bet on the “quantum investment concept” since June 2024. We have searched all the major conferences on the Internet (recommended this website , it is the most comprehensive aggregator I have found) and even flew across continents to attend some events.

Finding quantum cryptography startups is challenging because:

• Most quantum computing conferences have little to no overlap with the crypto space;

• In the few “quantum x cryptography” conferences — such as Oxford PQCrypto — most of the participants and speakers are pure academic researchers with no interest in entrepreneurship or cryptography. In fact, there is still a stereotype in the cryptography community that cryptography is a scam;

• Among the very few cryptographers who are interested in encryption, the ideas they propose are mostly technical functions rather than feasible products.

A quantum crypto startup is not something that can be built overnight: the team must be precisely located at the intersection of:

(1) From crypto native

(2) He is an academic expert in quantum cryptography

(3) Have entrepreneurial spirit

Even with a limited pool of talent, it’s hard to believe in the 6–7 quantum crypto projects that came before Quip. Most of them tried to build a post-quantum L1 chain and expect users to abandon their favorite chain and switch to a brand new one — which, in my opinion, is like asking users to live in nuclear shelters forever.

5. What should a “good” plan have?

To solve the problem, we need to understand it first. The key obstacles that currently hinder the implementation of post-quantum solutions are:

1. Attribution

Since both wallets and protocols/chains have quantum attack surfaces, both parties can blame each other if user funds are lost due to a quantum attack. Each party wants a scapegoat so they can say its not my problem.

2. Incentive issues

Why doesn’t Solana (or any L1) do it themselves? Because miners and validators have no incentive to bear the additional computation and storage costs of quantum-resistant algorithms. In addition, 90% of users are unattractive to quantum attackers, but the remaining 10% of users control 70% of the assets. The protocol/chain has no incentive to force the cost of ensuring security for large users onto small users. Therefore, quantum-resistant security must be modular and economically sound.

3. Inertia Problem

Vitalik mentioned hard forks as a last resort in his blog and warned against distracting attention from other core research directions. We have all seen how long it takes to push an EIP. People tend to react passively, but when they have to react, it is often too late.

4. Neutrality Issues

Even if a protocol implements post-quantum security itself, they have little incentive to ensure interoperability with other chains’ post-quantum security standards.

Therefore, the ideal solution to bring Web3 into the post-quantum world should have the following characteristics:

1. Trusted neutrality interoperability: can be integrated with any protocol, chain or wallet;

2. Accountability: Protocols and wallets can outsource post-quantum security upgrades to this third party — without requiring validators to bear the cost or liability;

3. Seamless integration: minimal impact on user experience; the solution should be natively integrated with the protocol without the need for asset bridges or migrations;

4. Sufficiently decentralized: A network with a solid security budget and distributed infrastructure;

5. Beyond Web3: To seize offensive opportunities, cooperation with quantum computing vendors will be the main advantage.

6. QUIP is the ideal solution

Quip Network offers—by far—the most realistic implementation solution for all stakeholders—retail investors, institutions, protocols, wallets, and more.

Its core technology is the Quantum Unit Interlock Pathway (QUIP), which can attach a post-quantum public key to future transfer operations as a secure signature. It can be natively integrated with any protocol or wallet to achieve security upgrades for user assets without affecting the user experience (no need to bridge or migrate on-chain assets, no need to change public/private keys), and will not dilute the TVL of the protocol.

The future – the offensive opportunity – lies in QUIP evolving into a quantum DePIN network, providing a platform similar to a quantum app store that brings together common applications and integrates with various quantum computing service providers to support scenarios such as:

• Shortest vector search: used in diverse fields such as logistics and financial arbitrage;

• AI learning and hash acceleration: can be applied to more efficient Bitcoin mining and data indexing;

• True random number generation: used for various types of Monte Carlo simulations.

More importantly, we are extremely excited about the QUIP team: Colton — a cryptography expert and YC-educated entrepreneur who has served as CMO, CEO, and COO at multiple companies valued at 9-10 figures; Dr. Carback — a senior cryptographer and serial entrepreneur with deep expertise in privacy protection and quantum-resistant systems; and their advisor, Dr. David Chaum — widely regarded as the “Father of Cryptocurrency.”

We are often asked: What is the earliest signal to determine whether a project will succeed after investment? The answer is undoubtedly: execution speed and iteration speed. In just a few months, Quip has achieved:

• Non-native launch on 10+ top public chains (native integration in progress)

• Negotiate with several leading L1s to seek support for natively integrated ecosystem funds

• Testnet is now live: vault.quip.network

• Waiting list exceeds 2000+ users, and the promised TVL reaches 8 figures

• Conducting POC testing with a custodian that manages 11-digit crypto assets

• Actively discussing cooperation with several top Web2 quantum computing companies

This article is sourced from the internet: Portal Ventures: About our quantum investment philosophy and how we found Quip Network

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