UK-based Cambridge Quantum is part of a troika that has announced a defense against quantum computing-based security threats to blockchain networks.
A project team comprised of developers from CQ, along with the Inter-American Development Bank, its innovation lab, IDB Lab, and Tecnológico de Monterrey, say they built a cryptographic layer that allows blockchain networks to protect themselves four potential threats, including communication between network nodes and the integrity of digitally signed transactions.
“Each threat area relies on cryptography and keys which are vulnerable to attacks by quantum computers and needs to be improved to ensure the security and integrity of blockchain networks,” said Salvador E. Venegas-Andraca Professor-Researcher and Director of the Quantum Information Processing Group of Tecnológico de Monterrey. “To address these threats, a post-quantum cryptography layer that protects networks and offers resistance to quantum computer attacks was developed on the LACChain Besu blockchain network, based on Ethereum technology. Transactions and communications were protected with quantum-proof keys from CQ’s Ironbridge platform, which uses quantum computers to generate certified entropy.”
Duncan Jones, head of Quantum Cybersecurity at CQ , emphasized that “LACChain blockchain was an ideal target for keys generated by our IronBridge platform. Only keys generated from certified quantum entropy can be resistant to the threat of quantum computing.”
Irene Arias Hofman, CEO of IDB Lab, said that “in the digital age in which we find ourselves we have at our disposal different emerging technologies with the capacity to solve social problems, and to the extent that we are able to combine them we will achieve an exponential impact. In this case, the knowledge of the IDB team, together with CQ and TEC, in both quantum and blockchain technologies, has made it possible to achieve a fundamental milestone to guarantee the future integrity of LACChain, a blockchain platform created by the IDB Lab which more than 50 entities in the region are using already.”
IDB Lab is the innovation laboratory of the IDB Group, the main source of financing and knowledge for development focused on Latin America and the Caribbean. The lab promotes innovation for inclusion in the region, mobilizing financing, knowledge and connections to test private sector solutions at an early stage. Since 1993, IDB Lab has approved more than US$2 billion in projects deployed in 26 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
