aiqbench analysis
This history traces quantum key distribution from Wiesner's unpublished 1970 idea to BB84 and E91, and links it to Shor's 1994 result that a large quantum computer could break RSA and elliptic-curve encryption. For quantum and AI readers, the practical point is that deployed QKD networks and NIST's 2024 post-quantum standards are responses to a real, though still future, threat to current encryption. Claims about specific awards and dates should be checked against primary sources.
Who Are the Godfathers of Quantum Cryptography? Wiesner, Bennett, Brassard, Shor and the Code Breakers
Stephen Wiesner, Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard invented quantum cryptography, and Peter Shor showed what a quantum computer would do to today’s encryption. Who did what, and who is still breaking codes.
A rejected student paper, a swim off San Juan and a 1994 algorithm created quantum cryptography. The people behind them still shape how the world protects its secrets. The godfathers of quantum cryptography are Stephen Wiesner, Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard. Wiesner had the founding idea around 1970, and Bennett and Brassard turned it into BB84, the 1984 scheme whose variants now run in operational quantum key distribution networks. Artur Ekert added an entangled version in 1991, while Peter Shor and Lov Grover showed in 1994 and 1996 what a quantum computer would do to today’s encryption. Stephen Wiesner. His paper Conjugate Coding, written around 1970 and rejected by a journal, described quantum money that physics would not let anyone forge. It was finally printed in 1983. Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard. They met in 1979 and in 1984 published BB84, a way to share a secret key whose safety rests on physics. They won the 2025 A.M. Turing Award, announced in March 2026. Artur Ekert. His 1991 protocol, E91, uses entangled photons and a Bell test to catch eavesdroppers. It later led to device-independent quantum key distribution. Peter Shor and Lov Grover. Shor’s 1994 algorithm would let a large…
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