The quantum future is coming and David Chaum’s xx network is ready for it
“The choice of keeping information in the hands of an individual or organization is made each time a government or company decides to automate another set of transactions.
In one direction there is unprecedented scrutiny and management of people’s lives, and in the other direction there is safe equality between individuals and organizations.
The shape of society in the next century may depend on which approach predominates. “
While fully describing the state of privacy in 2022, these terms are actually taken from the conclusions of the 1992 Scientific American article. David Chaum.. Chaum, an American computer scientist and cryptographer, is widely recognized as a cryptography pioneer who first proposed a solution for creating blockchain protocols in 1982.
He won his Monica as “The Godfather of Cryptocurrencies” early in the industry because his dissertation proposed everything except one element of the blockchain protocol detailed in the Bitcoin white paper.
Most of Chaum’s work turned out to be a precursor to the future. In 2022, most information networks in the world are in the hands of organizations, not the individuals who collect user data.
And while there is still time to reach a significant level of distrust of these organizations, confidence in alternatives is higher than ever.
Fight future battles on the xx network
Blockchain and other privacy protection technologies that pave the way for Web3 have been the focus of extensive research efforts and have been adopted by governments and businesses in multiple industries.
However, no matter how secure and efficient these networks are, they all have serious obstacles. Neither is resistant to quantum computing.
Chaum believes that those who deny the dangers of quantum computers and the ability to decipher even state-of-the-art encryption are unaware that technology isn’t a science fiction novel and is just around the corner.
“In the past few months alone, India has invested $ 1 billion in quantum computing and Israel has announced its intention to develop its own quantum computer for’strategic functions’,” Chaum told CryptoSlate. I did. “The Russian government started investing in 2020, and the UK has invested more than $ 1 billion since 2013. There is a secret military expansion competition that puts almost every blockchain at risk.”
Some reports estimate that by 2030, 2,000 to 5,000 quantum computers could be active worldwide. Chaum considers these to be realistic assessments and adds that it will take at least 10 years for quantum computing to become mainstream.
However, it does not have to be mainstream to pose a threat.
“For example, the governments of the United States and China do not shout their progress from the rooftop. They need a powerful system enough to threaten our privacy, security and digital sovereignty, yes, you. So is the cryptocurrency of.
When we enter the era of full quantum computing, we are likely to not know about it for a while. “
Chaum sincerely believes that the future of quantum will come. In a sense, he said, it’s already here.
That’s him and his team xx networkA new type of quantum-resistant, future-proof blockchain platform designed to address the decentralization and security issues facing today.
xx network consists of 5 main things component — Blockchain, Nodes, Governance, Currencies, and Communications — Designed to provide a secure and protected digital domain. The xx blockchain is the basic distribution mechanism of a network, allowing independently operated nodes to publicly verify transaction execution and other network operations.
To further improve the security of the platform, we will use a new consensus protocol developed by Chaum and his team. This protocol, called xx consensus, is based on the Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) protocol family and can achieve linear scalability.
However, unlike other BFT-based protocols, it remains secure even if its quantum resistance, high transaction throughput, and up to one-third of the network are compromised or taken offline.
Chaum hopes that platforms with this level of security will soon become commonplace.
“As developers awaken to the threat of quantum computing, I think protocols like ours need to become the norm. Users don’t want vulnerable blockchains. Cryptocurrency market capitalization is amazing. The idea that it is so huge and most of its value disappears in an instant will definitely focus. “
30 years of encryption behind xx messenger
But it’s not just the loss of monetary value that the xx network wants to protect its users. It’s also a loss of privacy.
xx One of the five major components of the network is Chaum’s flagship product xx messenger..
While xx messenger isn’t the only privacy-focused messaging app on the market, xx messenger is the only one that leverages a protocol as unique as xx consensus.
“What xx messenger does is to shred metadata using its own protocol, such as the sender, destination, date and time of the message. Indeed, the content of the message is something else. It’s encrypted in the app, but everything else about that communication is visible to the owner.
Other messengers retain this information because it has significant commercial value. We don’t know anything about users, and that’s the way it should stay. “
Chaum states that metadata shredding is essential for secure communications. The platform can access the user’s metadata even if the content of the message is hidden by end-to-end encryption.
“Governments and businesses can use metadata to collect details of your life,” explains Chaum. “Mark Zuckerberg, who recently promoted end-to-end encryption for Facebook and WhatsApps, holds metadata.
why? Because it is precious. Why is it worth it? It contains an incredible amount of information about you, and advertisers, governments, and businesses want it. “
Apart from the metadata shredding process, xx Messenger also leverages a mix network. This is a technology pioneered by Chaum in the early 1980s that paved the way for major cryptographic innovations such as Tor. A mix network takes data from multiple senders, shuffles it, and sends it back to the next destination or node in a random order. As a result, it is very difficult or impossible for a third party to find the sender and recipient.
Chaum, a mixed network protocol applied to xx messenger called cMix, goes a step further.
“Other mixed-net designs often use public key operations, which delays transmission time. However, using precomputation can significantly reduce computational power and processing time. It means that modern smartphones can run completely private messengers and have very low latency. “
Beyond Web3
The xx network is Chaum’s attempt to contribute to the fight for a better Web3 world. He’s pretty optimistic that quantum-tolerant technologies like those used in xx networks will become the norm, but he appreciates the worst-case scenarios in the industry.
He believes that the goal of the Web3 movement is to reverse the power of centralization for Web2 companies.
“What we don’t want is that fake decentralization will become the norm, as new businesses and dApps built on the blockchain will maintain a semi-centralized model and owners will indefinitely. It’s an intermediate path that holds a fair amount of control. “
However, Chaum also believes that people are becoming more and more aware of the shortcomings of Web 2, so the market for alternative solutions is vast.
“Every time we centralize power and information, people are lost and democracy is lost. Therefore, it is very likely that blockchain will help address this common problem.”
