A team of researchers has developed the prototype silicon chip that enables encryption that is impossible to break.
On Dec. 20 an article was published by scientific paper publication outlet Nature stating that the system uses chaotic wavepackets in conventional Silicon-based semiconductors.
The system was developed by:-
U.K.-based School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of St. Andrews
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia
Center for Unconventional Processes of Sciences in California
Quantum computers would be able to break traditional encryption algorithms in a short period of time- being a major threat to cryptocurrencies. The paper claims that conventional encryption standards that cryptocurrencies rely on could soon become outdated due to developments in quantum computing.
Decrypting Through OTP
The system is based on the idea of a one-time pad (OTP), patented by engineer Gilbert Vernam in 1919 after being conceived in 1882. The idea of OTPs are famous because they cannot be cracked, but require sharing one-time use keys the same size or longer than the data being sent before it is sent.
<img width="740" height="380" src="https://www.cryptonewspoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/code-1839406_1280.jpg__740x380_q85_crop_subsampling-2.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-7453 lazyload" />
However, OTPs are not adopted despite the system’s security because of the absence of a practical and safe way to exchange the keys. However, the chip developed by the researchers tries to make a practical OTP implementation, who claim to:
“Develop a physical realization of the OTP that is compatible with the existing optical communication infrastructure and offers unconditional security in the key distribution.”
The chips use traditional physics and the classical laws of physics, including chaos theory and the second law of thermodynamics. The keys that are used to decrypt the data are never stored or communicated with the message.
Source: Cointelegraph | Nature