Oh, D-Wave. The Canadian quantum computer company—excuse me, the alleged quantum computer company—needs your help to prove that its quantum computer is on the up and up. To that end, it has released software, AQUA@home, that mimics the large-scale architecture of SETI@home. That is, people volunteer their unused CPU cycles for the greater good. (In SETI@home’s case, finding extraterrestrial life; in AQUA@home’s case, proving that D-Wave’s quantum computer is really a quantum computer.)
D-Wave says that it needs volunteers to run the software—essentially a quantum computer emulator—in order to carry out a few tests. The result of these tests will determine whether or not D-Wave has a quantum computer on its hands. Should the tests pan out, hooray, then it has a quantum computer. If the tests show anything else, well, then D-Wave has a whole lot of nothing on its hands.