The race to secure Bitcoin and the internet from the threat of quantum computing begins as multinational conglomerate Toshiba announces plans to offer quantum cryptography services by 2025.
The Japan Times reports that Toshiba has begun testing its quantum cryptography services with Verizon Communications Inc. and with UK-based BT Group PLC. The test involves transmitting cipher keys, which are required to encrypt and decrypt data, through fiber-optic lines operated by the US and UK telecommunications giants.
The threat that quantum computers will be capable of cracking cryptographic algorithms that keep Bitcoin and the internet at large secure is imminent to some.
Last month, prominent MIT professor Peter Shor warned that existing cryptography measures put in place by traditional binary computational computers would not cut it for much longer.
“The sheer calculating ability of a sufficiently powerful and error-corrected quantum computer means that public-key cryptography is ‘destined to fail,’ and would put the technology used to protect many of today’s fundamental digital systems and activities at risk.”
Due to the looming arrival of more powerful computational machines, Toshiba believes that the quantum encryption services market will grow immensely in the coming decades. It hopes to snag 25% of the budding sector to help Japan catch up with entities in the US and China in the race to secure information in the digital age.
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