The quantum audit gap is real.
We're closing it — openly.
Every major quantum hardware provider — IBM, IonQ, Quantinuum, AWS Braket, Google QCS — produces job logs that record API calls. None produce cryptographically-sealed execution records that satisfy NIST SP 800-53 AU-9/AU-10, FDA 21 CFR Part 11, or NSA CNSA 2.0 requirements at execution granularity.
Regulated firms building quantum infrastructure today are accumulating compliance obligations they cannot yet satisfy. OQAC exists to define the open standard that changes this — before enforcement catches up with deployment.
Openness
All specifications freely available. No membership fee, registration, or payment required to read, implement, or conform.
Vendor Neutral
No single organization controls outcomes. Technical decisions by rough consensus (IETF RFC 7282). Specifications contain no normative references to proprietary products.
Implementer Protection
Community Specification License 1.0 provides reciprocal patent non-assertion to all conforming implementers. Implement freely, without legal risk.
Regulatory Alignment
Specifications map explicitly to NIST SP 800-53, 21 CFR Part 11, and CNSA 2.0. Conformance achievable using only published standards.
Academic Partnership
Universities and research institutions hold equal standing with industry contributors. Academic Technical Committee participation actively recruited.
Offline Verifiable
All OQAC-conformant records verifiable without network access, vendor API, or OQAC infrastructure. Records outlive any vendor.
How OQAC operates.
OQAC is an unincorporated industry consortium operating under a published charter. The full charter is available as a PDF; the summary below captures the operational commitments that govern specification work.
Established March 2026 as an open consortium for execution-provenance specifications applicable to quantum computing in regulated environments. Founding Contributor: Nuqasm, Inc. Charter ratified by founding parties; open to additional contributing members under published terms.
Open specifications for cryptographic execution provenance, audit-record schemas, and conformance test suites covering quantum workloads on simulators, on-premise hardware, and cloud QPUs. OQAC does not certify products, does not endorse vendors, and does not issue compliance attestations.
Specification decisions by rough consensus of the Technical Committee, with public comment periods of not less than 30 days for draft specifications and 60 days for ratified specifications. Dissent recorded in public archives. No single contributor — including the Founding Contributor — holds veto authority over specification content.
Each specification progresses through Draft → Public Review → Ratified, with conformance test vectors required before ratification. Drafts may be implemented at any stage; conformance claims permitted only against ratified versions. The version number indicates lifecycle stage (v0.x = draft; v1.0 = ratified).
OQAC operates under a published antitrust policy: specification work confined to interoperability; pricing, market allocation, and competitively sensitive topics out of scope and out of meetings.
OQAC was founded by Nuqasm, Inc. The Founding Contributor retains no special voting rights, no veto authority, and no exclusive licensing privileges. This page exists to make that relationship explicit, not to obscure it.
Who governs the work.
The Technical Committee approves specifications, conformance tests, and lifecycle transitions. Membership is published; meeting minutes are public; new members join by application reviewed by the existing committee. OQAC is intentionally small at founding and growing through implementer participation.
OQAC is a new consortium with a small founding committee. We publish this page to make the founding state explicit rather than to overstate adoption. We expect committee composition to evolve as the spec attracts independent implementers and academic reviewers. Adoption claims, when made, will reference named conforming implementations — never aspirational membership.
Current specification work.
OQAC specifications are developed openly by the Technical Committee. All drafts are published for public comment. Conformance test suites accompany each ratified specification. QXAP v0.9 is the first specification under public review; v1.0 ratification targeted following the review period and incorporation of public comments.
| Specification | Description | Status | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| QXAP v0.9 | Quantum Execution Archive Protocol. Defines the .qcap file format for cryptographically-sealed quantum execution records using ML-DSA-87 (FIPS 204). Covers circuit binding, device calibration attestation, result integrity, authorization non-repudiation, and offline verification. | Public Review | Read draft → |
| QXCT v0.1 | Conformance Test Suite for QXAP. Reference test vectors, signed exemplar archives, and a parser-conformance harness. Required for v1.0 ratification of QXAP. | Draft | GitHub → |
- Scope, conformance terminology, and normative referencesStable
- Archive container structure and the
.qcapfile formatStable - Workload binding: circuit text, hash, and submitter identity envelopeStable
- Environment policy block and execution-site declarationStable
- Device calibration attestation: snapshot fields and freshness windowPublic Comment
- Execution record: transpiled circuit, backend ID, shot data, timestampsStable
- Signature suite: ML-DSA-87 (default), ML-DSA-65 (non-NSS profile)Stable
- Append-only ledger binding and chained-hash constructionPublic Comment
- Offline verification procedure and verifier conformance requirementsStable
- Regulatory control mapping (informative): SP 800-53, Part 11, SR 11-7, EU AI Act Art. 12Informative
- Cryptographic agility and algorithm-identifier registryPublic Comment
- Security considerations and known limitationsStable
- Worked examples (informative)Informative
Community Specification License —
reciprocal patent protection for all implementers.
OQAC specifications are published under the Community Specification License 1.0 (Joint Development Foundation). Every contributor automatically grants a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free patent license covering claims essential to a conforming implementation.
Nuqasm, Inc., as Founding Contributor, additionally publishes a standalone Patent Non-Assert Pledge committing not to assert any patent rights — whether currently held or hereafter acquired — against any conforming implementation of QXAP. The pledge is irrevocable, binding on successors and assignees, and applies regardless of OQAC membership status.
Join the working group.
OQAC grows through implementers and reviewers, not through membership tiers. There are no fees, no approval gates for reading or implementing, and no requirements beyond good-faith participation. The Technical Committee reviews applications for voting membership; everyone else participates openly through public comment, mailing lists, and GitHub.
Independent Implementers
Run the reference verifier. Implement QXAP support in your quantum workflow. File issues against the spec where it is ambiguous or under-specified. Independent implementations are how this specification becomes a real standard rather than one vendor's format with a logo on it.
Reference verifier (MIT) →Academic Partners
Universities implementing independent verifiers are invited to co-author follow-on standardization papers. The Academic Chair seat is reserved for non-industry committee leadership; additional academic seats are open to researchers in cryptography, formal methods, quantum systems, or regulatory informatics.
Contact academic program →Technical Committee
Contributing members participate in specification development under the published charter. Decisions by rough consensus (IETF RFC 7282). All committee work — meeting minutes, draft revisions, dissent records — is public. Apply with a brief statement of interest and relevant experience.
Apply to Technical Committee →Public Comment
No membership required to comment on draft specifications. QXAP v0.9 public review runs through 30 June 2026. File issues, propose changes, or submit prose redlines via GitHub or the comment mailing list. All comments and responses are archived.
Public comment (GitHub) →