Despite the robust security offered by distributed ledgers and blockchain through encryption and decentralised consensus mechanisms, the rapid advancement of the quantum computing cyber threats necessitates a proactive approach to future-proofing these systems. It is crucial to not only maintain but also continue to enhance the security measures surrounding distributed ledgers, ensuring that they remain resilient against both current and emerging cyber threats. This line of thought is important for the emerging trend of asset tokenisation, where assets are carried across the network.
However, the major concern of implementing PQC into distributed ledgers is the potential impact on performance. These new algorithms have larger key sizes for the cryptography, and may have significant effect on the operational use of distributed ledgers. It has been argued that the signatures and larger key sizes used in PQC systems would cause an increase in block size and signature time. This has the unfortunate consequence of affecting the performance, efficiency, and execution speed of the whole distributed network. Therefore, an appropriate solution to integrate PQC algorithms into distributed ledgers needs to consider performance.
In a significant milestone HSBC in collaboration with Quantinuum, a 3rd party integrated quantum company, successfully trialled the first application of quantum-secure technology for distributing tokenised physical gold. This achievement underscores HSBC’s FX and commodities businesses commitment to safeguarding critical applications from potential future quantum computing attacks. It also presents a cost-effective approach to protecting existing production DLT in the short and medium term, without the need for re-architecting the DLT.