Multi-party quantum byzantine agreement without entanglement

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a protocol of quantum communication to achieve Byzantine agreement among multiple parties. Our protocol’s striking feature compared to the existing protocols is that we do not use entanglement to achieve the agreement. The role played by entangled states in other protocols is replaced in our protocol by a group of semi-honest list distributors. Such a replacement makes the implementation of our protocol more feasible. Moreover, our protocol is efficient in the sense that it achieves agreement in only three rounds which is a significant improvement with respect to the alternative agreement protocol not using entanglement. In the first round, a list of numbers that satisfies some special properties is distributed to every participant by list distributors via quantum secure communication. Then, in the second and third rounds, those participants exchange some information to reach an agreement.