A Lean Approach to Deep Tech Innovation

What makes this project stand out is its scrappy, accessible blueprint—perfect for India's resource-constrained startup scene. Ashish, a non-tech founder, is leveraging open-source tools and strategic partnerships to build a proof-of-concept (PoC) for under $10,000. Here's how:
Planning and Threat Assessment (Free): Using free tools like OpenSSL and NIST's PQC migration playbook, the team will audit fintech vulnerabilities, focusing on APIs and transaction data at risk from quantum attacks.
Development Setup ($500): Free IDEs like VS Code and cloud trials from AWS/Google Cloud (offering PQC libraries) keep costs low. The open-source liboqs library will integrate Kyber for encryption and Dilithium for signatures, ensuring compatibility with existing systems via hybrid setups.
Core Implementation ($1,000): A software-only PoC will secure mock fintech transactions, tested with tools like qutip for quantum threat simulation. This lean approach avoids expensive hardware initially. Testing with Free Data ($500-$2,000): Synthetic datasets from Kaggle (e.g., PaySim with 1M+ transactions) and IBM's AML-Data will simulate real-world fintech scenarios. Community audits via GitHub and the Post-Quantum Cryptography Alliance (PQCA) ensure robustness. Deployment ($1,000-$5,000): Hosting on affordable clouds like DigitalOcean and open-sourcing the PoC on GitHub will attract contributors, scaling the project organically.
This frugal strategy aligns with Eleventh Square's ethos of maximizing impact with minimal resources. By tapping into India's 60,000 annual patents and 19,000 AI researchers, Ashish is proving that deep tech isn't just for PhDs or big budgets.