Researchers at Cambridge University revealed that the data can now be encrypted and then decrypted securely by leveraging combined power of quantum theory and relativity.
The University’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics revealed that the system also enables sender to dictate the presentation of coded data without any chance of interruption or manipulation.
As part of the new study in quantum cryptography, researchers transmitted encrypted data between pairs of sites in Geneva and Singapore, reserved ‘perfectly secure’ for fifteen milliseconds and then implemented a ‘bit commitment’ protocol, as per the theoretical work.
Study co-author Dr Adrian Kent said that this is the first time perfectly secure bit commitment – relying on the laws of physics and nothing else – has been demonstrated.
"It is immensely satisfying to see these theoretical ideas at last made practical thanks to the ingenuity of all the theorists and experimenters in this collaboration," Kent said.
According to researchers, relativistic quantum cryptography would be used by global stock markets and everything from global financial trading to secure voting and also long-distance gambling.
Researchers also noted that completely secure ‘bit commitment’ only through quantum theory would be impossible, while the ‘extra control’ offered by relativity is vital.
The researchers used Einstein’s special relativity – which interprets uniform motion between two objects moving at relative speeds – combined with the power of quantum theory, the new physics of the subatomic world.
