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Quantum cryptography
Quantum cryptography is an effort to allow two users of
a common communication channel to create a body of shared and secret
information. This information, which generally takes the form of a random
string of bits, can then be used as a conventional secret key for secure
communication. It is useful to assume that the communicating parties
initially share a small amount of secret information, which is used up and
then renewed in the exchange process, but even without this assumption
exchanges are possible.
The advantage of quantum cryptography over traditional key exchange
methods is that the exchange of information can be shown to be secure in a
very strong sense, without making assumptions about the intractability of
certain mathematical problems. Even when assuming hypothetical
eavesdroppers with unlimited computing power, the laws of physics
guarantee (probabilistically) that the secret key exchange will be secure,
given a few other assumptions
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