Quantum Entanglement Identity Authentication Protocol LoomID: Making Identity Forgery Physically Impossible

LoomID, jointly released by the Pan Jianwei team at the University of Science and Technology of China and Origin Quantum, is the first identity authentication protocol based on quantum entanglement. The protocol leverages the no-cloning property of quantum states, a fundamental principle of physics, to eliminate identity forgery at the physical level. Any attempt to steal or copy identity information destroys the quantum state itself, leaving the attacker with invalid data.

The project grew out of long-running work in quantum information science. Classical cryptography is built on computational complexity assumptions. Breaking encryption requires enormous computational resources. But this assumption becomes fragile in the face of quantum computers. A sufficiently large quantum computer could theoretically break all current mainstream encryption algorithms. LoomID turns to a completely different security foundation: physical laws themselves.

At the core of the protocol is entangled pair distribution. Each user receives a pair of entangled quantum particles upon registration. One is stored in the user's physical key card, and the other in the authentication server. When the user requests identity verification, the server measures its retained quantum particle and notifies the user of the result through a quantum channel. The user simultaneously measures their own quantum particle. If the two measurements meet a specific correlation, this proves the user holds the legitimate quantum key.

On the security side, LoomID has the property of provable security. Any attacker who wants to forge an identity must be able to simultaneously measure and copy the quantum states of both the user and the server. But according to the no-cloning theorem in quantum mechanics, a quantum state cannot be exactly copied. Any measurement inevitably disturbs the quantum state itself. This means that even if an attacker can access the quantum channel, they cannot copy the identity without being detected.

The pilot study was conducted simultaneously in Hefei, Jinan, and Shenzhen, involving 20,000 users and 48 financial institutions. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, and Ping An Bank participated in the pilot, using LoomID for identity verification in high-value transfers and large-amount wealth management purchases. Results show that LoomID's identity verification error rate dropped to one in a billion, five orders of magnitude lower than traditional biometric recognition and eight orders of magnitude lower than the traditional password-plus-SMS solution.

For commercialization, Origin Quantum will launch the first consumer-grade LoomID key card in the second half of 2026, priced at 1,999 renminbi. The key card uses nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond as the quantum state carrier, operating at room temperature without the need for cryogenic cooling. This breakthrough makes quantum identity authentication possible outside the lab and into the consumer market. Zhang Hui, general manager of Origin Quantum, said the company expects to cover identity authentication scenarios for 30 million high-net-worth users in China by 2027.

On the regulatory side, China's National Cryptography Administration has issued commercial cryptography certification for LoomID. This means LoomID can be used in regulated finance, government, and defense scenarios. Origin Quantum is in talks with cryptology authorities in several countries about mutual recognition, hoping to enable cross-border quantum identity authentication in the future. Professor Pan Jianwei said quantum identity authentication is one of the foundational components of the quantum internet, and will form a complete quantum security ecosystem alongside quantum key distribution and quantum secure direct communication.