03/10/2022
Quantum for blockchain
NEW YORK, NY; HANOVER, MD – February 17, 2022 – In groundbreaking research, JPMorgan Chase, Toshiba and Ciena have demonstrated the full viability of a first-of-its-kind Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) network, resistant to quantum computing attacks and capable of supporting 800 Gbps data rates for mission-critical applications under real-world environmental conditions.
The research team demonstrated the ability of the newly developed QKD network to instantly detect and defend against eavesdroppers. It also studied the impact of realistic environmental factors on the quality of the quantum channel and used a QKD-secured optical channel to deploy and secure Liink by J.P. Morgan, the world's first bank-led, production-grade, peer-to-peer blockchain network. This is the first demonstration of QKD securing a mission-critical blockchain application in the industry.
Under the leadership of JPMorgan Chase’s Future Lab for Applied Research and Engineering (FLARE) and Global Network Infrastructure teams, researchers from all three organizations collaborated to achieve the following notable results:
A QKD channel was multiplexed on the same fiber as ultra-high bandwidth 800 Gbps optical channels for the first time and used to provide keys for encryption of the data stream.
Co-existence of the quantum channel with two 800 Gbps and eight 100 Gbps channels was demonstrated for a 70km fiber, with a key rate sufficient to support up to 258 AES-256 encrypted channels at a key refresh rate of 1 key/sec.
Operation of QKD and the ten high-bandwidth channels was demonstrated for distances up to 100km.
The proof of concept network infrastructure relied on Toshiba’s Multiplexed QKD System, manufactured by Toshiba Europe at their Cambridge UK base, and Ciena’s Waveserver 5 platform, equipped with 800 Gbps optical-layer encryption and open APIs running over Ciena’s 6500 photonic solution. The tests were conducted in JPMorgan Chase’s fiber optic production simulation lab.
https://www.jpmorganchase.com/news-stories/jpmc-toshiba-ciena-build-first-quantum-key-distribution-network
