In recent years, blockchain technology has been hailed as a breakthrough disruptor, poised to drive innovation in virtually every industry ranging from legacy organisations to game-changing start-ups in the new digital economy. This revolutionary technology stems from the ability of blockchain to act as a decentralised distributed ledger. It promises more secure real-time transactions and record-keeping, making it harder for important data to be manipulated or falsified.
 
However, current blockchain technology can require long periods of time to reach a consensus for highly secure Distributed Ledger Technology (DLTs). This is especially so for public chains, and efforts to increase the speed of consensus often lead to compromised security.

On 7 April 2021, OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. (OneConnect), the leading technology-as-a-service platform provider and an associate of Ping An Insurance Group, and Singapore Management University (SMU) announced the key findings from a jointly conducted research on the potential of quantum computing to augment blockchain technology for businesses. Harnessing the theory of quantum mechanics, quantum computing systems are designed to solve highly complex problems that cannot be solved by even the world’s most powerful supercomputers.

The findings from this research follow an earlier Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between OneConnect and SMU in 2019 to develop a Proof of Concept (POC) to investigate the characteristics of quantum computing for DLTs.

Co-led by Associate Professor Paul Griffin from SMU School of Computing and Information Systems, the report focused on studying quantum algorithms that could augment blockchain technology to optimise and reach robust, large-scale consensus. The research also showed that quantum technology could be used to solve what is also known as the “blockchain trilemma” – the inherent constraint faced by classical DLTs to improve speed, security and size at the same time – and thus increasing potential business usage.

At present, classical blockchains are still adequate for current data volumes. However, as big data becomes more prevalent, quantum technology will be critical to improving blockchain technology in areas such as wide-scale consensus, efficiency for on-chain data searching, private record validation, high-speed smart contract processing and interoperability between blockchain networks.

Adapted from: 
https://engage.smu.edu.sg/why-quantum-technology-answer-optimising-blockchain-future