Quantum Open Source with Will Zeng and Ziyaad Bhorat

In this special live-streamed discussion, Will Zeng, co-founder of the Unitary Foundation, and Ziyaad Bhorat, VP at the Mozilla Foundation, join host Sebastian Hassinger to unpack their co-authored white paper, The Open Foundation Quantum Technology Needs. The paper argues that open source quantum software is structurally underfunded — too applied for academic grants, too public-good for venture capital — and that philanthropic organizations need to step in before the window closes.

This conversation arrives at a pivotal moment. Google recently published a paper showing Shor's algorithm could break ECDLP-256 with roughly 500,000 physical qubits — a 20x improvement over prior estimates — while Oratomic launched claiming 10,000 reconfigurable atomic qubits may be sufficient for cryptographically relevant computation. The timelines are compressing. The question is whether the software ecosystem can keep pace with the hardware.
The video of our conversation can be viewed on YouTube.

What you'll learn

• Why open source quantum software falls into a structural funding gap between academic grants and venture capital — and what that means for the field's trajectory
• How Mozilla Foundation evaluates emerging technology fields for philanthropic intervention, and what specifically convinced them quantum was ripe for engagement
• What Google's 20x efficiency gain for Shor's algorithm and the Oratomic launch mean for Q-Day timelines and post-quantum migration urgency
• Why the "quantum Linux" analogy is useful but incomplete — and what the real risk is (fragmentation, not monopoly)
• How Unitary Foundation's microgrant program ($4,000, six months) has become a faster on-ramp to quantum careers than traditional academic pathways
• What PyMatching, PyZX, and other microgrant-funded projects reveal about the scalability of small open source investments
• Why open source benchmarking through Metriq Gym matters — and why vendor-driven benchmarks can't fill this role
• How the Qiskit team reductions at IBM illustrate the fragility of corporate-backed open source in quantum
• What specific policy asks the quantum open source community has for the NQI reauthorization
• The von Neumann vs. ENIAC lesson: why openness wins over secrecy in building transformative computing platforms

Resources & links

• The Open Foundation Quantum Technology Needs — The white paper by Zeng, Castanon, and Bhorat (March 2026) that anchors this conversation
• Unitary Foundation — 501(c)(3) non-profit building, governing, and sustaining open source quantum software since 2018 
• Mozilla Foundation — Non-profit championing open source and internet health, supporting Unitary Foundation's quantum work
• Mitiq — Open source toolkit for quantum error mitigation
• Metriq — Community-driven quantum benchmarking platform 
• Metriq Gym — Open source benchmarking suite for quantum computers 
• Unitary Compiler Collection (UCC) — Quantum circuit compilation tools
• QuTiP — Quantum Toolbox in Python, stewarded by Unitary Foundation
• PyMatching — Open source decoder for quantum error correction, originally funded by a UF microgrant 
• PyZX — ZX-calculus library for quantum circuit optimization, also originating from UF support 
• Unitary Hack — Annual bug bounty hackathon connecting open source quantum projects with global contributors 
• CSIS Commission on U.S. Quantum Leadership — Warning on quantum decryption surprise referenced in the white paper
• Will Zeng — President and co-founder of Unitary Foundation; Partner at Quantonation; DPhil in Quantum Information, University of Oxford
• Ziyaad Bhorat — VP of Imagination and Strategic Growth, Mozilla Foundation; PhD in Political Science, UCLA

Key quotes

"Do we want a future where quantum computers are developed by secret government contractors with specialized PhDs who have top secret security clearances? Or do we want a future where quantum computers are built in the private sector, competing to provide economic value to everyone around the world?" — Will Zeng

"Do not be afraid to experiment. We're doing ourselves a disservice to be slow, especially in a space that really warrants experimentation." — Ziyaad Bhorat, on his message to philanthropic colleagues

"There's billions of people on the planet who want to do exciting and interesting things. Building quantum technology is one of those. If you have enough motivation, you just need to provide some on-ramps." — Will Zeng

"We should put forward an affirmative vision of what that future should look like and drive towards it — because otherwise it will be built in secret." — Ziyaad Bhorat

"The US spends 30, 35 billion on potato chips every year. There's a lot of room to grow." — Will Zeng, on the scale of quantum investment relative to what's needed

Related episodes

• Ep 19: Quantum Error Mitigation using Mitiq with Misty Wahl — Deep dive into Mitiq, one of Unitary Foundation's flagship open source projects discussed in this episode.
• Ep 35: Quantum Benchmarking with Jens Eisert — Explores the challenges of quantum benchmarking that Will Zeng addresses with the Metriq platform.
• Ep 29: Quantum Education and Community Building with Olivia Lanes — Parallels to the community-first approach to workforce development that both guests advocate.
• Ep 53: Fostering Quantum Education with Emily Edwards — The Q12 initiative's approach to quantum education, complementing UF's open source on-ramps.
• Ep 79: Building a Quantum Ecosystem from Scratch with Martin Laforest — How Quebec built a quantum ecosystem — relevant context for the white paper's argument about building open infrastructure early.

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