Arqit, Traxpay Partner on Quantum-Safe Financial Document Transfer

Quantum encryption specialist Arqit Quantum is working with supply-chain finance company Traxpay to protect digital financial transactions from being decrypted by quantum computers.

Arquit plans to deploy its TradeSecure service directly into Traxpay’s supply chain financing platform, which has processed more than $69 billion of supply chain finance assets to date.

TradeSecure uses distributed ledger technology to provide customers with a digital promissory note or a digital bill of exchange, which are easier to manage than paper-based alternatives, as well as being unique, transferable and unchangeable.

Arqit plans to use its symmetric key agreement software, QuantumCloud, to protect Traxpay’s transactions from current cyber threats and from future quantum computers that will be able to break current encryption methods.

Global trade is likely to receive a boost when the U.K. government’s upcoming Electronic Trade Documents Bill legalizes electronic transferable documents for supply chain finance enabling. This aims to make the movement of goods across borders faster, cheaper and simpler.

However, it also leaves global trade more vulnerable to cybersecurity threats, including “harvest now, decrypt later” attacks that steal encrypted data until future quantum computers can decrypt it.

Arqit says its digital finance instruments cannot be tampered with, creating a safe legal promise to pay for goods or services that supply chain parties can use to conduct trade.

The full-scale commercial product is in live testing and is expected to launch globally in 2023, once enabling legislation has come into effect. According to Arquit, it meets the requirements of the Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR), which aims to enable the legal use of electronic transferable records both domestically and across borders.

“We are delighted to be working with Traxpay to enable their corporate customers and banking partners to access finance more efficiently and securely,” said Arqit senior vice president of working capital technology Dominic Broom.

“Malicious actors will undoubtedly target global trade as it undergoes transformative digitization. Provably quantum-safe digital finance instruments are needed to maintain confidence in digital trade platforms and to defend against threats from both classical and quantum computers.

“We believe that, in the quantum era, Arqit is the first company in the world whose technology meets MLETR provisions on the identity, integrity and control of electronic transferable records. Being first to market to comply with the new laws is an exciting opportunity”.

“Arqit’s technology is highly compatible with our supply chain finance ecosystem and uniquely capable of delivering clearly identifiable, quantum-safe digital finance instruments which are urgently needed in the digital trade era,” added Traxpay managing director of markets and sales Markus Wohlgeschaffen.

“We are now able to create new products for our customers that allow an unrivaled level of flexibility in liquidity management, efficiency, transaction speed, cost reduction and, most importantly, the highest levels of security.”