Postquant Labs has launched a single programming layer that runs across competing quantum and classical hardware, which it calls the Quip Virtual Machine (QVM).It charges for computation with a gas model that is borrowed from Ethereum.The company stated that QVM is now live on its Aglais testnet at aglais.quip.network, with free compute credits for new users.Postquant Labs also launched its first quantum smart contracts alongside a settlement layer that handles quantum-resistant payments, which it named QuipSwap.One language across annealers, gate systems, and classical chipsBig tech companies such as IBM, AWS, and Microsoft that play in the quantum computing space run their own respective stacks. IBM runs Qiskit, and Microsoft runs Cirq, which was originally developed by Google.However, there is no shared program representation or pricing between the existing quantum service providers.QVM offers one constraint-based language that covers quantum annealers, gate-based quantum machines, and ordinary classical hardware.Programs compile into instructions with costs fixed in advance, and then deploy to the Quip Network. It runs on connected quantum computers while classical machines check the output.Developers who publish their programs publicly collect a payment each time someone runs them.Postquant Labs’ CEO and cofounder, Colton Dillion, said, “We created the QVM because quantum computing is still fractured between competing instruction sets and assemblers, providing few easy onramps to outsiders.”The QVM was modeled in spirit after Ethereum’s Virtual Machine, per Dillion.How is QVM’s cost calculated?The company said that the cost on the QVM is calculated from the answers gotten from the following questions: how much qubit space a job uses, how long it runs, and how much entanglement it requires.The quote that comes from that is upfront, which is not common or clear with the existing providers in the industry. For example, IBM’s Quantum pricing only covers IBM hardware.Microsoft’s Azure Quantum usually requires a spend floor near $1,000 before a first circuit runs.The QVM’s approach is closest to AWS Braket, however, with spot-style pricing set per transaction.Richard Carback, Postquant Labs’ CTO and co-founder, called the pay-as-you-go model “the missing piece that demonstrates quantum computing is commercially viable and practical.”1,930 optimization races at Quantum.TechThe QVM ran 1,930 head-to-head portfolio optimization contests between quantum and classical solvers, using problems submitted by roughly 100 attendees at the Quantum.Tech event.Results that were within 0.5% of each other counted as ties. The quantum solver matched or beat the classical one in every race. It won by a median of 2.56% in cases where the two diverged by more than 0.5%. Both typically answered in 0.1 to 0.3 seconds.Universities and a verification layerResearchers at Monash University, the University of Notre Dame, and Purdue University are evaluating the QVM, and SiC Systems is testing it on industrial optimization work.Dr. Terrence Mak of Monash said students often spend a full semester just learning a quantum paradigm, and the QVM could cut that time. Dr. Soheil Mansouri, SiC Systems’ co-founder and chief science officer, said his team needs to test many combinatorial solutions quickly for chemical and biological manufacturing processes.Postquant Labs has been busy with its Quip Network, having launched its quantum-classical testnet in April 2026. It did this with D-Wave Quantum and signed up more than 13,000 participants.QVM’s launch is the latest addition to that body of work.Postquant Labs’ founders are also part of the founding contributors to the Quantum Alliance, an open standards body for post-quantum blockchain readiness that was launched on October 15. The quantum threat to existing crypto signatures is a live worry, with Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin recently warning that AI math could weaken post-quantum schemes within two years.The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them.