Design of an Exchange Protocol for the Quantum Blockchain

Abstract

This paper explores the idea of a quantum exchange protocol between two entities, validated by (at least) a third one. Two entities, part of a greater system, decide they want to trade quantum goods: their exchange is configurable, and allows them to select the type of good, from a selected preset, and the desired quantity, up to a maximum value (one of the quantum goods can be interpreted as quantum money/a form of quantum currency). Certain qubits should also be used as a way of storing the details of the transfer, after it has been validated (acting in a similar way to a quantum ledger). The quantum circuits of the proposed design are implemented using the Python programming language with the help of Qiskit, IBM’s open-source quantum framework.