Experimental preparation and verification of quantum money

TL;DR

This paper reports an experimental demonstration of creating and verifying unforgeable quantum banknotes, showing the practicality of quantum money with current technology and a security analysis accounting for experimental imperfections.

Contribution

It presents the first experimental implementation of quantum money preparation and verification with a comprehensive security analysis considering real-world imperfections.

Findings

Measured 3.6 million states in one verification round

Limited forging probability to 10^-7

Demonstrated feasibility of quantum banknotes with current techniques

Abstract

A quantum money scheme enables a trusted bank to provide untrusted users with verifiable quantum banknotes that cannot be forged. In this work, we report an experimental demonstration of the preparation and verification of unforgeable quantum banknotes. We employ a security analysis that takes experimental imperfections fully into account. We measure a total of $3.6\times 10^6$ states in one verification round, limiting the forging probability to $10^{-7}$ based on the security analysis. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of preparing and verifying quantum banknotes using currently available experimental techniques.