SEALSQ and Palm Technologies Plan Quantum-Resistant Palm Payment Hardware

SEALSQ and India-based Palm Technologies have formed a partnership to add post-quantum hardware security to palm biometric products for payments, public transport and connected infrastructure.

The first planned integration will place SEALSQ’s QS7001 secure microcontroller in Palm Technologies’ MetPalm V1 reader, which is being developed for metro and toll payments. The companies describe the project as a design and integration program rather than a completed commercial deployment.

SEALSQ will provide the security technology and technical support for integrating its secure element. Palm Technologies will be responsible for product architecture, palm biometric design, firmware, applications, system integration, regulatory compliance and deployment.

The QS7001 is designed to run cryptographic algorithms intended to withstand attacks from future quantum computers. SEALSQ says the controller supports standardized post-quantum methods including Kyber for establishing encrypted connections and Dilithium for digital signatures. The integration is intended to support secure authentication, trusted device identity, protected transactions and long-term system integrity.

Palm Technologies also plans to apply the design to its Palm-M merchant terminal. Longer-term targets include its OrbitQops products for robots, drones, electric vehicles, satellites, communications networks and other connected devices.

Other vendors have introduced palm recognition as a contactless payment method. Verifone recently introduced face and palm-vein payment devices in Australia, while Tencent Cloud has worked with Treeal on palm-recognition payments in Brazil. Those systems use vascular patterns or other palm characteristics to associate a person with a payment credential.

The new project adds a separate security layer around the biometric transaction. Its secure controller is intended to protect keys and authentication operations at the device level, while Palm Technologies’ software and sensors perform capture, matching and integration with payment or transit systems.

SEALSQ is also applying post-quantum cryptography to identity and connected-device applications. Other identity providers are taking related steps, including Daon’s effort to organize patented technologies into a quantum-resistant identity architecture.

The MetPalm V1 integration is the partnership’s initial engineering milestone. Palm Technologies will lead field implementation in India, with SEALSQ supplying the secure hardware and integration support for the resulting devices. That division of work extends from the chip interface through product compliance and field deployment.

Source: GlobeNewswire

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By Ji-seo Kim