The world is entering a new era where the digital and the physical are inseparably connected. From self-driving cars and automated factories to AI agents operating in the real world, interactions are no longer confined to cyberspace. Trust can no longer live only in server rooms or be managed by traditional digital tools. It must be embedded everywhere, in every device, every process, every interaction. This is the vision laid out by ARIA’s opportunity space Trust Everything, Everywhere, and it resonates deeply with NeverLocal’s own mission.
We believe the next revolution in security will be grounded not in computational assumptions, but in the laws of physics. Just as encryption enabled the explosion of the digital economy, physics driven security will enable the rise of the cyber physical economy. To achieve this, the infrastructure of trust must evolve: it must span bits and atoms, software and hardware, the digital and the physical. This is not an abstract aspiration; it is a decisive shift in how security must be conceived if we want innovation to flourish in the decades ahead.
Why a New Approach to Trust is Needed
For decades, encryption and digital signatures have been the backbone of the internet economy. They secured trillions in commerce, financial transactions, and communications. But as soon as digital instructions begin to affect physical reality, operating a robot, piloting a drone, or managing a smart grid, the assumptions underpinning trust are stretched to breaking point. Traditional cryptography assumes that the hardness of mathematical problems is enough to deter attackers. Yet the complexity of cyber physical systems demands stronger, more universal guarantees.
The truth is simple: the digital economy grew on trust that was engineered mathematically; the cyber physical economy will grow only if trust is guaranteed by physics. Systems that move real-world value, energy, or safety cannot wait for after-the-fact patches. They need primitives rooted in the very fabric of reality. This is where ARIA’s vision intersects perfectly with our own: trust must be everywhere, because physics is everywhere.
NeverLocal’s Broad R&D Themes
At NeverLocal, our motto is “Fides in Physica”, meaning trust in physics. We pursue research that translates this principle into practical directions, aligned with ARIA’s call. Some of the themes driving our roadmap include:
- Hybrid quantum–classical solutions that blend today’s hardware with quantum security features, such as trusted execution environments enhanced by quantum cryptography.
- One shot signatures and one time programs, tools that open possibilities for secure transactions, automated protocols, and new layers of financial infrastructure in decentralised finance.
- Contextual cryptography and device independent security, where trust comes from quantum correlations that cannot be faked, even by adversaries with unlimited computing power.
- Near term applications of quantum cryptography, developed without waiting for universal quantum computers or large-scale quantum memory, so that value can be delivered today.
- Accessibility for the broader cryptography community, using automation and compilation techniques to move beyond hand-designed proofs, and making advanced quantum tools available for web3 and beyond.
- Financial applications and the long-term goal of quantum money, where value is embodied in unforgeable physical states rather than in code alone.
- A positive feedback loop between hardware and applications, where new use cases increase demand for chips, memory, and infrastructure, enabling more powerful applications over time.
These themes are not isolated projects. Together, they form a coherent roadmap: to bring security guaranteed by physics into the real world, step by step, with immediate benefits and a clear long-term destination.
A Decisive Vision for the Future
The urgency cannot be overstated. The infrastructures of tomorrow, smart cities, autonomous supply chains, next-generation financial networks, will not succeed if trust mechanisms lag decades behind innovation. We cannot afford to repeat the path of the internet, where trust was bolted on after the fact, leaving vulnerabilities that still haunt us today. Instead, we must leapfrog: deploying fundamentally secure systems now, while the foundations are still being laid.
This is why ARIA’s opportunity space is so important, and why NeverLocal is proud to stand alongside it. Both recognize that physics is not a curiosity for laboratories, but a toolkit for securing society’s most vital systems. Both see that the opportunity is not only scientific, but also economic and cultural: whoever builds the next trust stack will shape the next economy.
Building Together
Turning this vision into reality requires bold collaboration. No single company, agency, or research group can achieve it alone. That is why we invite industry leaders, policymakers, and builders to join us:
- Industry leaders can pilot hybrid quantum–classical solutions in supply chains, energy grids, and financial platforms, setting the standards for tomorrow.
- Funders and policymakers can accelerate breakthroughs by backing research and ensuring these systems serve the public interest.
- Builders and technologists can bring creativity from across domains, AI, biotech, materials science, to expand what physics-driven trust can do.
The stakes are clear. The future of security will not be written in passwords or patches. It will be written in quantum states, in contextual correlations, and in physical fingerprints that cannot be forged.