Practical quantum tokens: challenges and perspectives
The concept of quantum tokens dates back alongside quantum cryptography to Stephen Wiesner’s seminal work in 1983. Already this initial work proposes society-relevant applications such as secure quantum banknotes, which can be exchanged between a bank and a customer. This quantum currency is based on various physical states that can be easily verified but is protected from being copied by the fundamental quantum laws. Four decades later, these ideas have flourished in the field of quantum information, and the concept of quantum banknotes has not only adopted many varying names, such as quantum money, quantum coins, quantum-digital payments, and quantum tokens, but also reached its first experimental demonstrations. In this perspective article, we discuss the current state-of-the-art of quantum tokens in the field of quantum information, as well as their future perspectives. We present a number of physical realizations of quantum tokens with integrated quantum memories and their applicability scenarios in detail. Finally, we discuss how quantum tokens fit into the information security ecosystem and consider their relationship to post-quantum cryptography.
Authors
- Boris Naydenov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5215-3880)
- Thomas Halfmann (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1222-2669)
- Wolfram H. P. Pernice (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4569-4213)
- Kilian Singer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9726-0367)
- Janik Wolters (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4107-1265)
- David Hunger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6156-6145)
- R. V. Kolesov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7337-3578)
- Ilja Gerhardt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5807-2929)
- Hans Huebl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3023-5209)
- Gregor Pieplow (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8133-4704)
- Juliane Krämer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3599-4215)
- Kai Müller (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9024-4249)
- Wolfgang Kilian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5812-5736)
- Martı́n E. Garcia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2418-1902)
- Anna P. Ovvyan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4439-2224)
- Cyril Popov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4646-5319)
- Alexander Kubanek (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2417-1985)
- Christian Deppe
- Tim Schroeder
- Holger Boche
- Rudolf Gross
- Nadezhda Kukharchyk
- Kirill Fedorov
- Janis Nötzel
Publication Details
- Journal
- KITopen
- Published
- 2026-09-10
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.5445/ir/1000196923
- Primary Topic
- Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00