May 26, 2017 at 14:07 // News

Nina Lyon Author

The Russian Quantum Center has created and tested the world's first "quantum-secured Blockchain". Researchers claim that they have managed to develop an unbreakable distributed data storage system protected by quantum cryptography methods.



A researcher from the Russian Quantum Center, Alexei Fedorov, explained that quantum computers have almost unlimited computing power. The Blockchain technology that we are using today is vulnerable to attacks by means of quantum computers. Quantum computers can test a huge number of calculations at once, which allows falsifying the electronic signatures that sign transactions on the blockchains, and make changes on it or even grant access to the network to other participants. To solve this problem, Fedorov and his colleagues created their own version of the Blockchain, which allows using a quantum cryptography and quantum data transfer system to protect such databases from hacking.

According to a report , this technology creates special blocks which are signed by quantum keys, rather than traditional digital signatures. These quantum keys are generated by a combining quantum key distribution network, which guarantees the privacy of the key using the laws of physics.

It allows using quantum communication channels to transmit data about transactions that are processed currently. When all members of the network receive information about the upcoming transfer, they check the reliability of the participants and collectively decide whether it is worth entering it into the database. To do so they compare obtained values pairwise. This method protects the Blockсhain from being hacked as it requires seizing a significant portion of the network participants.

Quantum-secured Blockchain tested

The Quantum-secured blockchain has already been tested by the Russian Quantum Center in one of Russia’s largest banks – Gazprombank. They created a three-node quantum network between the branches of Gazprombank in Moscow and tested whether a hacker could make false transactions on the quantum-safe blockchain. According to the report, all attempts to add such a transaction to the database were unsuccessful.

The Russian Quantum Center is now working to expand to other Russian and international banks.

Alexei Fedorov and his colleagues commented:

"According to the forecasts of experts, by the middle of the 2020s about $ 62 trillion of services will be signed in the Blockchain. The effect of our development can significantly increase the market volume.”