Building the “Worst” Quantum Devices at DEF CON – with Mark Carney and Victoria Kumran | Ep. 133

In this episode, host Konstantinos Karagiannis reunites with longtime friends and co-founders of the Quantum Village, Mark Carney and Victoria Kumran, to preview their upcoming plans for DEF CON 34. Celebrating their fifth anniversary, the duo reflects on how the Quantum Village has evolved from a "hodgepodge" of quantum skepticism into an internationally recognized hub for open-source, hands-on hardware. Backed by their first-ever philanthropic grant from Mozilla, Victoria and Mark highlight how the village is breaking down academic barriers and empowering educators, security researchers and hobbyists alike to engage with complex quantum concepts on their own terms.

Get an exciting look at some of the village’s wildest DIY achievements, including a recap of "Uncut Gem," a budget-friendly, open-source quantum magnetometer built using green LEDs and red filter gel instead of expensive laboratory lasers. They also dive into their newest $35 open-source creation, the "entropy loop," a quantum random number generator (QRNG) designed to build real intuition about vacuum fluctuations and phase diffusion. Touching on this year’s DEF CON theme of "agency," the guests tackle how independent creators can push back against big-tech opacity by building and understanding their own secure systems. As with DEF CON in general, this episode covers a wide technical range, from how quantum sensors might detect alien signals to tinkering with a Raspberry Pi Pico. Also find out what two talks Konstantinos will be giving at the show this year.

For more on DEF CON, visit https://defcon.org/index.html.

For more on Quantum Village, visit https://quantumvillage.org/.

Visit Protiviti at https://www.protiviti.com/US-en/technology-consulting/quantum-computing-services to learn more about how Protiviti is helping organizations get post-quantum ready.

Follow host Konstantinos Karagiannis on all socials: @KonstantHacker

Questions and comments are welcome!

Theme song by David Schwartz, copyright 2021.

The views expressed by the participants of this program are their own and do not represent the views of, nor are they endorsed by, Protiviti Inc., The Post-Quantum World, or their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, representatives, shareholders, or subsidiaries. None of the content should be considered investment advice, as an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as an endorsement of any company, security, fund, or other securities or non-securities offering. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Protiviti Inc. is an equal opportunity employer, including minorities, females, people with disabilities, and veterans.