"Quantum Information Processing has the potential to revolutionize the future of information technologies. My long-term vision is a network of quantum and classical devices, where individual agents have the ability to communicate efficiently in a variety of ways with trusted and untrusted parties and securely delegate computational tasks to a number of untrusted large-scale quantum computing servers. In such an interconnected world, the notion of security against malicious adversaries is an imperative. In addition, the interaction between agents must remain efficient and it is important to provide the agents with incentives for honest behaviour. The realization of such a complex network of classical and quantum communication must rely on a solid theoretical foundation that nevertheless is able to foresee and handle the intricacies of real-life implementations.The targeted breakthrough of this proposal is to set the benchmark, both theoretically as well as experimentally, of some necessary communication components for such a hybrid network. The concrete objectives of our project are to: design novel cryptographic primitives as a powerful quantum mechanical toolkit for the quantum network infrastructure; study quantum communication and games in order to minimize the communication overhead and guarantee the honest behaviour of rational agents; enhance the understanding of the fundamentals of quantum mechanics and of classical complexity theory through the lens of quantum information and cryptography; study the security of cryptographic primitives in realistic conditions and use state-of-the-art photonic systems to implement complex cryptographic primitives.An ERC Starting Grant will enable me to reach the above objectives through the creation and coordination of an independent quantum cryptography group that will raise the level of competence and competitiveness of the EU and will provide methods and applications essential for the future of information technology."