Description
Qünze is a “quantum coin” whose outcome, when flipped or tapped, is derived from a hardware entropy source and processed in software into a single random bit, displayed as either green (heads) or red (tails).
Currently available for reservation. Final appearance, specifications, pricing and features subject to change.
Thesis
At its core is a reverse-biased Zener diode operating in breakdown. In this regime, the device produces a small, continuously fluctuating voltage arising from a combination of physical processes in the junction, including shot noise, avalanche effects, and potentially quantum-mechanical tunneling contributions depending on operating conditions.
We sample this signal repeatedly over a period of about one second using an onboard microcontroller. Each measurement is a quantized snapshot of a continuously varying analog process. While no single sample can be attributed to a specific microscopic event, the aggregate distribution contains contributions from the underlying physical noise of the device.
These samples are then processed using bias-reduction and mixing techniques (including debiasing and entropy-conditioning methods such as XOR folding) to produce a single output bit. The goal of this processing is not to preserve the raw signal, but to extract any independent entropy present while suppressing deterministic structure and measurement bias.
The result is one bit per interaction: green or red, heads or tails.
Whether the dominant source of entropy is ultimately quantum in nature or primarily classical device noise is an experimental question the prototype device is designed to help answer.
