Security and implementation of advanced quantum cryptography : quantum money and quantum weak coin flipping

Mathieu Bozzio

Published Dec 10, 2019• 0 citations

Abstract

Harnessing the laws of quantum theory can drastically boost the security of modern communication networks, from public key encryption to electronic voting and online banking. In this thesis, we bridge the gap between theory and experiment regarding two quantum-cryptographic tasks: quantum money and quantum weak coin flipping. Quantum money exploits the no-cloning property of quantum physics to generate unforgeable tokens, banknotes, and credit cards. We provide the first proof-of-principle implementation of this task, using photonic systems at telecom wavelengths. We then develop a practical security proof for quantum credit card schemes, in which the bank can remotely verify a card even in the presence of a malicious payment terminal. We finally propose a setup for secure quantum storage of the credit card, using electromagnetically-induced transparency in a cloud of cold cesium atoms. Quantum weak coin flipping is a fundamental cryptographic primitive, which helps construct more complex tasks such as bit commitment and multiparty computation. It allows two distant parties to flip a coin when they both desire opposite outcomes. Using quantum entanglement then prevents any party from biasing the outcome of the flip beyond a certain probability. We propose the first implementation for quantum weak coin flipping, which requires a single photon and linear optics only. We provide the complete security analysis in the presence of noise and losses, and show that the protocol is implementable on the scale of a small city with current technology. We finally propose a linear-optical extension of the protocol to lower the coin bias.

DOI: 10.70675/327fb916zebbez4bbez88f6z073f8507ff40

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