How (not) to Build Quantum PKE in Minicrypt

Longcheng Li, Qian Li, Xingjian Li, Qipeng Liu

Abstract: The seminal work by Impagliazzo and Rudich (STOC’89) demonstrated the impossibility of constructing classical public key encryption (PKE) from one-way functions (OWF) in a black-box manner. Quantum information has the potential to bypass classical limitations, enabling the realization of seemingly impossible tasks such as quantum money, copy protection for software, and commitment without one-way functions. However, the question remains: can quantum PKE (QPKE) be constructed from quantumly secure OWF?