In 2020, the IOG team published the work One-shot Signatures and Applications to Hybrid Quantum/Classical Authentication. The work went unnoticed. It was known only in the Cardano community. The Ethereum team recently came across this work and is excited about it. A collaborative workshop between the University of Edinburgh, IOG, and the Ethereum team is planned. One-shot signatures bring advanced cryptography to better secure the functioning of the blockchain. In addition, it allows the creation of such things as blockchain-less cryptocurrency. In the article, we will explain the basic principles of one-shot signatures. Then we will explain how this technology can significantly improve the security of Cardano.
The one-shot signatures scheme is a hybrid system that combines principles from quantum mechanics with classical communication methods.
Classical communication methods include traditional internet technologies for transferring data (protocols) and classical cryptographic schemes, such as public key cryptography.
So, while the system allows for local quantum operations (more details later), the actual transmission of information is done using these classical methods. This approach allows for the implementation of quantum principles…