TY - JOUR
T1 - Demonstration of quantum-digital payments
AU - Trenti, Alessandro
AU - Schiansky, Peter
AU - Kalb, Julia
AU - Sztatecsny, Esther
AU - Slater, Marie-Christine
AU - Guggemos, Tobias
AU - Bozzio, Matthieu
AU - Walther, Philip
PY - 2023/6/29
Y1 - 2023/6/29
N2 - Digital payments have replaced physical banknotes in many aspects of our daily lives. Similarly to banknotes, they should be easy to use, unique, tamper-resistant and untraceable, but additionally withstand digital attackers and data breaches. Current technology substitutes customers’ sensitive data by randomized tokens, and secures the payment’s uniqueness with a cryptographic function, called a cryptogram. However, computationally powerful attacks violate the security of these functions. Quantum technology comes with the potential to protect even against infinite computational power. Here, we show how quantum light can secure daily digital payments by generating inherently unforgeable quantum cryptograms. We implement the scheme over an urban optical fiber link, and show its robustness to noise and loss-dependent attacks. Unlike previously proposed protocols, our solution does not depend on long-term quantum storage or trusted agents and authenticated channels. It is practical with near-term technology and may herald an era of quantum-enabled security.
AB - Digital payments have replaced physical banknotes in many aspects of our daily lives. Similarly to banknotes, they should be easy to use, unique, tamper-resistant and untraceable, but additionally withstand digital attackers and data breaches. Current technology substitutes customers’ sensitive data by randomized tokens, and secures the payment’s uniqueness with a cryptographic function, called a cryptogram. However, computationally powerful attacks violate the security of these functions. Quantum technology comes with the potential to protect even against infinite computational power. Here, we show how quantum light can secure daily digital payments by generating inherently unforgeable quantum cryptograms. We implement the scheme over an urban optical fiber link, and show its robustness to noise and loss-dependent attacks. Unlike previously proposed protocols, our solution does not depend on long-term quantum storage or trusted agents and authenticated channels. It is practical with near-term technology and may herald an era of quantum-enabled security.
KW - quantum technology
KW - digital payments
KW - quantum communication
KW - Codes
KW - Bit commitment
KW - Key distribution
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-023-39519-w
DO - 10.1038/s41467-023-39519-w
M3 - Article
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 14
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
M1 - 3849
ER -