Why in the News?
A recent breakthrough demonstrated use of quantum science, blockchain, and cryptography to create truly random and secure numbers used in encryption for secure communication.
About the Technology:
- Encryption: Converts readable data into unreadable code using a “key”; only someone with the correct key can decrypt the message.
- Importance of Randomness: Secure encryption depends on unpredictable keys—predictable keys can be guessed or hacked.
- Issue with Computers: Most keys are generated using pseudo-random algorithms, which appear random but are predictable if the method is known.
About the Breakthrough Lava Lamp Method:
- Setup: 100 lava lamps placed on a wall at Cloudflare’s San Francisco office; a camera takes periodic photos of the moving blobs.
- Process: Each photo is converted into numerical data, creating a random seed to generate encryption keys.
- Why Lava Lamps? The heat-driven movement of wax blobs is unpredictable and creates unique images.
- Limitations: Movements follow physics, so not truly random. Also, the algorithm that converts images is deterministic—reproducible if known.
Quantum Random Number Generation Protocol:
- Why Quantum Physics: Subatomic particles like photons behave randomly; for example, a photon’s polarization is unknown until measured.
- How It Works: Scientists used lasers to generate entangled photons and measured them millions of times to produce random results.
- Data Conversion: The raw data (in binary) was biased, so a randomness extractor was used to generate a clean 512-bit unbiased number using a second random seed.
- Blockchain Role: Each step was recorded on blockchain for transparency, with digital fingerprints (hashes) to ensure data integrity.
- Team Involvement: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), University of Colorado, and DRAND each handled separate parts to ensure decentralization and trust.
- Public Use: The final random numbers are shared via CURBy, a public distribution service.
- Significance: Though still emerging, this method shows strong potential for future ultra-secure encryption systems.
| [UPSC 2025] Consider the following statements:
I. It is expected that Majorana 1 chip will enable quantum computing. II. Majorana 1 chip has been introduced by Amazon Web Services (AWS). III. Deep learning is a subset of machine learning. Which of the statements given above are correct? Options: (a) I and only I (b) II and III only (c) I and III only* (d) I, II and III |
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