Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

European Journal of Physics

Bit commitment as an introduction to quantum cryptography

Tim Lethen

Published Jun 14, 2022• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Abstract This paper analyzes some of the drawbacks of Bennett & Brassard’s quantum key distribution protocol when used in an educational setting introducing components of quantum cryptography. We propose to utilize a quantum bit commitment protocol instead in order to avoid the outlined difficulties. Additionally, we present implementations of the latter protocol in two different programming paradigms which may either be used as a practical demonstration tool for holding a quantum bit ballot, or as a means to foster an in-depth understanding of the cryptographic protocol amongst pupils with a background in computer science.

DOI
10.1088/1361-6404/ac78a7

Related papers

Quantum cryptography

Dagmar Bruß, Gábor Erdélyi, Tim Meyer +2 more

We survey some results in quantum cryptography. After a brief introduction to classical cryptography, we provide the quantum-mechanical background needed to present some fundamental protocols from quantum cryptography. In particular, we review quantum key distribution via the BB84 protocol and its security proof, as well as the related quantum bit commitment protocol and its proof of insecurity.

ACM Computing Surveys•Jul 6, 2007•77 citations

Unconditionally Secure Quantum Bit Commitment is Impossible

Dominic Mayers

The claim of quantum cryptography has always been that it can provide protocols that are unconditionally secure, that is, for which the security does not depend on any restriction on the time, space, or technology available to the cheaters. We show that this claim does not hold for any quantum bit commitment protocol. Since many cryptographic tasks use bit commitment as a basic primitive, this result implies a severe setback for quantum cryptography. The model used encompasses all reasonable implementations of quantum bit commitment protocols in which the participants have not met before, including those that make use of the theory of special relativity.

arXiv:quant-ph/9605044•Physical Review Letters•Apr 28, 1997•745 citations

A Survey on Quantum Cryptographic Protocols and Their Security

Chi‐Hang Fred Fung, Hoi‐Kwong Lo

Communications in secrecy are often required in many commercial and military applications. Unfortunately, many cryptographic schemes in use today such as public-key cryptography based on the RSA algorithm would be broken with either unanticipated advances in hardware and algorithm or the advent of quantum computers. Quantum cryptography, on the other hand, has been proven secure even against the most general attack allowed by the laws of physics and is a promising technology poised for widespread adoption in realistic cryptographic applications. Quantum cryptography allows two parties to expand on a secret key that they have previously shared. Various quantum cryptographic protocols have been proposed to perform this task. In this paper, we survey some popular quantum cryptographic protocols (including the famous Bennett-Brassard 1984 protocol) and discuss their security. Specifically, we consider their security in two cases: the ideal case where a perfect single-photon source is used and the practical case where a realistic laser source is used. We compare the protocols and find that the efficient six-state protocol outperforms the others both in the tolerable quantum bit error rate and in the key generation rate when a realistic laser source is used.

Conference proceedings - Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering•Jan 1, 2007•7 citations

A novel single agent quantum bit commitment scheme

Zhang Linxi, Nan Zhao, Changxing Pei +1 more

Quantum cryptography is believed to be unbreakable in theory because of the laws of quantum mechanics. Numerous experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of quantum cryptography and a complete proof of the unconditional security of some main schemes. However, in practice all devices need trusting by each other firstly during the process of quantum key distribution(QKD). For identifying the reliability, we propose a quantum bit commitment protocol that can be regarded as the primitive of authentication protocol in QKD networks. In this protocol we complete bit commitment merely by one agent, and prove the security of the schemes. Compared with other protocols, our schemes have less requirement for additional hardware and lower complexity in implementation.

IEEE Conference Proceedings•Jan 1, 2017•0 citations

A survey of quantum key distribution protocols

Mobin Javed, Khurram Aziz

Quantum cryptography offers a promising unbreakable cryptographic solution as it ensures perfect secrecy in applications such as quantum key distribution and bit commitment. The focus of this paper is to trace the development of quantum key distribution protocols and discuss the state of the art and open issues in this field. Although the protocols have mathematically proven to be totally secure, it must be emphasized that any real world implementation suffers the limitations of physical devices which can serve as vulnerability for an eavesdropper to exploit. In this paper, we survey the quantum key distribution protocols which exist in literature and explore the attacks to which they are vulnerable. We highlight the main implementation bottlenecks related with each implementation and the solutions proposed thereof.

International Conference on Frontiers of Information Technology (FIT)•Dec 16, 2009•7 citations

A novel single agent quantum bit commitment scheme

Linxi Zhang, Nan Zhao, Changxing Pei +1 more

Quantum cryptography is believed to be unbreakable in theory because of the laws of quantum mechanics. Numerous experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of quantum cryptography and a complete proof of the unconditional security of some main schemes. However, in practice all devices need trusting by each other firstly during the process of quantum key distribution(QKD). For identifying the reliability, we propose a quantum bit commitment protocol that can be regarded as the primitive of authentication protocol in QKD networks. In this protocol we complete bit commitment merely by one agent, and prove the security of the schemes. Compared with other protocols, our schemes have less requirement for additional hardware and lower complexity in implementation.

2012 International Conference on Computing, Networking and Communications (ICNC)•Jan 1, 2017•0 citations
Abstract This paper analyzes some of the drawbacks of Bennett & Brassard’s quantum key distribution protocol when used in an educational setting introducing components of quantum cryptography. We propose to utilize a quantum bit commitment protocol instead in order to avoid the outlined difficulties. Additionally, we present implementations of the latter protocol in two different programming paradigms which may either be used as a practical demonstration tool for holding a quantum bit ballot, or as a means to foster an in-depth understanding of the cryptographic protocol amongst pupils with a background in computer science.
The claim of quantum cryptography has always been that it can provide protocols that are unconditionally secure, that is, for which the security does not depend on any restriction on the time, space, or technology available to the cheaters. We show that this claim does not hold for any quantum bit commitment protocol. Since many cryptographic tasks use bit commitment as a basic primitive, this result implies a severe setback for quantum cryptography. The model used encompasses all reasonable implementations of quantum bit commitment protocols in which the participants have not met before, including those that make use of the theory of special relativity.
Communications in secrecy are often required in many commercial and military applications. Unfortunately, many cryptographic schemes in use today such as public-key cryptography based on the RSA algorithm would be broken with either unanticipated advances in hardware and algorithm or the advent of quantum computers. Quantum cryptography, on the other hand, has been proven secure even against the most general attack allowed by the laws of physics and is a promising technology poised for widespread adoption in realistic cryptographic applications. Quantum cryptography allows two parties to expand on a secret key that they have previously shared. Various quantum cryptographic protocols have been proposed to perform this task. In this paper, we survey some popular quantum cryptographic protocols (including the famous Bennett-Brassard 1984 protocol) and discuss their security. Specifically, we consider their security in two cases: the ideal case where a perfect single-photon source is used and the practical case where a realistic laser source is used. We compare the protocols and find that the efficient six-state protocol outperforms the others both in the tolerable quantum bit error rate and in the key generation rate when a realistic laser source is used.
Quantum cryptography is believed to be unbreakable in theory because of the laws of quantum mechanics. Numerous experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of quantum cryptography and a complete proof of the unconditional security of some main schemes. However, in practice all devices need trusting by each other firstly during the process of quantum key distribution(QKD). For identifying the reliability, we propose a quantum bit commitment protocol that can be regarded as the primitive of authentication protocol in QKD networks. In this protocol we complete bit commitment merely by one agent, and prove the security of the schemes. Compared with other protocols, our schemes have less requirement for additional hardware and lower complexity in implementation.
Quantum cryptography offers a promising unbreakable cryptographic solution as it ensures perfect secrecy in applications such as quantum key distribution and bit commitment. The focus of this paper is to trace the development of quantum key distribution protocols and discuss the state of the art and open issues in this field. Although the protocols have mathematically proven to be totally secure, it must be emphasized that any real world implementation suffers the limitations of physical devices which can serve as vulnerability for an eavesdropper to exploit. In this paper, we survey the quantum key distribution protocols which exist in literature and explore the attacks to which they are vulnerable. We highlight the main implementation bottlenecks related with each implementation and the solutions proposed thereof.
Quantum cryptography is believed to be unbreakable in theory because of the laws of quantum mechanics. Numerous experiments have demonstrated the feasibility of quantum cryptography and a complete proof of the unconditional security of some main schemes. However, in practice all devices need trusting by each other firstly during the process of quantum key distribution(QKD). For identifying the reliability, we propose a quantum bit commitment protocol that can be regarded as the primitive of authentication protocol in QKD networks. In this protocol we complete bit commitment merely by one agent, and prove the security of the schemes. Compared with other protocols, our schemes have less requirement for additional hardware and lower complexity in implementation.