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To shop on the unhackable quantum internet, we will need new security techniques. Though we do not have a fully operational quantum internet yet, researchers have now demonstrated a proof of concept for secure quantum e-commerce.

at Renmin University of China and his colleague built a small network from five quantum computers connected with several kilometres of fibre. This worked as all quantum networks do, by tweaking the quantum properties of light pulses travelling between the computers so that it is nearly impossible to intercept the transmitted information without destroying it.

Then the researchers gave each machine a role. One played the merchant, two others could act as buyers and the remaining two served as neutral mediators to prevent any party from lying to the others.

The quantum computers communicated by sharing special sequences of quantum light signals called quantum encryption keys. To engage in e-commerce, the merchant generated a contract that both it and a buyer had to verify and sign. Each step of their communication went through a third-party mediator first. As a trial contract, the researchers transmitted a file the same size as the Amazon Web Services customer agreement, or about a million bits.

In around 1 second, the merchant and the client could complete the contract signing process 11 times. Yin says this is faster than similar protocols for quantumly secure transactions that have been suggested in the past, and closer to the speeds of traditional communication networks.

The team also made minimal assumptions about the quantum computers a user may have access to, so the new process works even with imperfect quantum devices, like all that currently exist, he says.

at Miami University in Ohio says the experiment uses two previously studied quantum encryption protocols, which derive their security from fundamentals of quantum physics. By combining these protocols, the researchers achieved an e-commerce set-up that could withstand attacks from hackers with very powerful computers.

But adapting this quantum e-commerce protocol to networks larger than five users may be challenging, says at the University of Toronto and the quantum start-up . He estimates that enabling a million users to participate in transactions would require about a trillion keys at the beginning of the process. That could be impractical, he says.

Yin and his team also want to make their idea more feasible, through improving their experiment and inspiring others. 鈥淲e would like to see other research teams use or further develop our work and validate various application scenarios in some existing metropolitan quantum communication networks,鈥� he says.