Quantum advances threaten financial cryptography, Zingrillo warns
Trust in digital money depends directly on the strength of underlying cryptographic systems, Banca d’Italia Director General for Information Technology Giuseppe Zingrillo said at the Financial Cryptography in Rome conference on October 6, 2026.
From gold convertibility to digital anchors
Zingrillo highlighted that public trust in commercial bank money relies on central bank money providing a common anchor through convertibility at par and ultimate settlement.
In a digital environment, this anchor depends on cryptography to verify payment instructions, prevent double-spending of digital assets, and protect sensitive data across market infrastructures.
Mathematical soundness alone is insufficient: security depends equally on algorithm selection, key storage and renewal, protocol design, and operational governance.
As financial infrastructures digitize, institutional credibility becomes tightly intertwined with the resilience of the cryptographic mechanisms in daily use.
Preparing for the post-quantum horizon
“Preparing for that transition is therefore a task for the present, even while the threat lies in the future,” Zingrillo noted regarding post-quantum cryptography.
Because core financial infrastructures have long lifespans, replacing vulnerable encryption standards requires years of coordinated deployment before quantum computers materialize.
Concurrently, artificial intelligence accelerates the speed and scale at which malicious actors discover vulnerabilities in defensive protocols.
No room for cryptographic delay
Central banks cannot treat quantum migration as a distant issue given the long lifespan of financial rails.
Linking encryption to institutional governance rightly frames cyber resilience as core to monetary trust.
However, voluntary dialogue remains insufficient without binding deadlines for private payment operators.