Quantum Resilient Blockchain Protocols for Securing U.S. Financial Systems

Abstract

Blockchain technology has been in recent years among the most adopted technologies in the U.S. It has disrupted whole industries, ranging from finance and health to supply chain management and verification of digital identities. Nevertheless, such a tendency does not imply that the Blockchain systems are by any means fully protected against threats emanating from other emergent technologies, like quantum computing. State-of-the-art algorithms like Secp256k1 and Schnorr afford high levels of security in Blockchains; notwithstanding, they are vulnerable to quantum attacks. To solve this problem, a series of quantum-resistance algorithms has been proposed.  Performance analysis of Quantum-resistant algorithms on a Blockchain in this respect, therefore, originates from getting effective insights into the efficiency of quantum-resistant algorithms in real-world scenarios. In light of the above need, we prototyped and analyzed the Falcon algorithm for a quantum-resistant Blockchain. Falcon is preferred because it provides a smaller signature and key size compared to Crystals-Dilithium and Sphincs++.  This paper proposes a systematic quantum-resistant Blockchain and suggests different approaches to select quantum-resistant algorithms based on different Blockchain scenarios. These results from our approach and benchmark have implications for the future development and adoption of quantum-resistant Blockchains.