A substrate-independent unit of computational energy efficiency, benchmarked against the Landauer limit.
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The Quant is DUCP's companion standard. Where the protocol's native unit 𝕌 (the Universal Compute Unit) measures how much useful work was delivered, the Quant ℚ measures how cleanly it was delivered — the useful information resolved per joule, normalized to a reference machine and to operating temperature. Together they form a two-axis model of computation: 𝕌 is the quantity axis (metered and rewarded), ℚ is the quality axis (measured and made legible, never affecting payment).
The Quant is defined to stand on its own. It is usable by anyone comparing efficiency across CPUs, GPUs, and emerging substrates — Green500 entrants, sustainability-bound buyers, and hardware vendors — independent of whether they use DUCP. DUCP is its first reference adopter.
Request for Comments & Collaboration. v0.1.0 is the first public release — a unit defined to be measured, not asserted — now seeking scrutiny, validated benchmark data, and collaborators. See Comments & collaboration.
- The Quant (ℚ): A Standard for Measuring Computational Energy Efficiency — v0.1.0 (PDF) — current
- Markdown source — editable source
- Changelog · Release
quant-v0.1.0 - Prior drafts (provenance):
releases/· author-localarchive/companion-docs/Quant_Standard_Proposal_v0.3.pdf(not published)
v0.1.0 (Request for Comments & Collaboration), June 2026. An open standard proposal seeking scrutiny and validated benchmark data, not a ratified standard. Public history begins at v0.1.0; prior internal drafts are archived. The version line is independent of the DUCP white-paper version.
Versioning. 0.MINOR.PATCH during the RFC phase; 1.0.0 reserved for a normative-stable standard. See CHANGELOG.md.
| Shared element | Role |
|---|---|
| Two-axis model | 𝕌 = quantity (rewarded); ℚ = quality (reward-neutral observable). |
| Reward-neutrality | ℚ is recorded per settled task but never affects 𝕌 minting, payment, or proof validity — so no older device, hot climate, or constrained region is ever penalized. |
| Benchmark Node | The same reference machine that sets DUCP's 𝕌 metering publishes the Quant's |
| Sealed Power Proof | The bound-don't-measure mechanism (developed in DUCP) by which ℚ is recorded trustlessly where per-task energy cannot be both confidential and attested. |
| Vendor-locked power register | The single concrete hardware ask shared by both efforts. |
DUCP depends only on the Quant's classical, Landauer-bounded core (§§3–6 of the paper). See the main protocol white paper and the README.
This is a request for comments and collaboration — critique, especially adversarial, is welcome.
- Comment or propose: open an issue in the DUCP spec repo with the
quantlabel, or email mr.singhpawan@gmail.com. - Where help matters most — the paper's open work:
- validated benchmark entries with NIST-traceable power and temperature logs (MLPerf-style runs);
- empirical regression on the arithmetic-precision scaling law;
- the vendor-attested locked power register (Seal grade S2) — the one concrete hardware ask;
- standardizing the per-task measurement boundary (chip / node / facility).
ℚ is deliberately defined to be measured, not asserted: the most valuable contributions are real measurements and rigorous critique.
Same terms as the rest of DUCP — ownership and control are retained by the author through the pre-1.0 phase.
- Copyright © 2026 Pawan Singh. All rights reserved except as expressly granted.
- Document license — CC BY-NC-ND 4.0: read, share, and cite the verbatim, attributed document for non-commercial purposes; no derivatives or commercial use without written permission.
- Trademarks — "Quant" and the Quant (ℚ) mark are trademarks of the author, alongside "DUCP," "Decentralized Universal Compute Protocol," and the 𝕌 / UCU mark.
This summary is informational, not legal advice.
Singh, P. (2026). "The Quant (ℚ): A Standard for Measuring
Computational Energy Efficiency." Version 0.1.0, June 2026.
Request for Comments & Collaboration. Companion to the
Decentralized Universal Compute Protocol (DUCP).