Google's 'Crazy Tool' Could Make Blockchain Obsolete – Experts Suggest 'Wild' And 'Exciting' Times Ahead Amid 'High Risk, High Reward' Endeavor

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Google is developing a digital currency concept that could eliminate the need for blockchain technology entirely by harnessing the fundamental laws of physics instead of complex computer code, according to company researchers.

A new study titled “Anonymous Quantum Tokens with Classical Verification” presents a new protocol where a bank can distribute quantum tokens that are indistinguishable before measurement. It enables users to validate their tokens using only classical operations. The research was conducted by scientists from Google Quantum AI, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Czech Academy of Sciences. The paper advances a decades-old theoretical concept for currency that would be protected by the unchangeable laws of quantum physics.

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Quantum Mechanics as Security Foundation

The groundbreaking research into “quantum money” directly challenges the technological foundation that has supported cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin for over a decade, the study's authors argue. Rather than relying on distributed ledgers and computational power, this new approach would secure digital currency through quantum mechanics itself.

“It’s this crazy tool,” Dar Gilboa, a Google Quantum AI researcher and co-author of the study, told Decrypt. “You can do all these wild things. It’s high risk, high reward—but that’s what makes it exciting.”

Making Counterfeiting Physically Impossible

The quantum money system makes counterfeiting not merely difficult from a computational standpoint, as Bitcoin does, but physically impossible. “If you had a $1 bill that was actually a quantum state, you could prove, based on the properties of quantum mechanics, that copying such a state is impossible,” Gilboa told Decrypt. “You could only succeed with very small probability.”

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Blockchain technology’s main purpose is preventing “double-spend” without requiring a central authority, Decrypt reported. It accomplishes this by maintaining a massive, public, and permanent accounting system that everyone can monitor and verify. Quantum money addresses the same problem through a more direct method. If the token itself is physically impossible to copy and can only be spent once, there is no need for a global ledger to track who owns what throughout history.

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“We’re not solving the same problem,” Gilboa told Decrypt. “What we’re doing isn’t decentralized, so it’s not really an analog of cryptocurrencies in any strong sense.”

From 1969 Theory to Modern Implementation

This revolutionary concept first emerged in 1969 when physicist Stephen Wiesner proposed a method for creating “private-key quantum money” designed to be impossible to duplicate, CryptoRank reported. Wiesner’s paper, which was not published until 1983, described a system where each banknote would exist as a unique quantum state linked to a serial number. Only the mint that issued the currency would possess the ability to verify its authenticity, creating an unprecedented level of security.

The initial concept sparked further exploration into public-key quantum money. Scientists developed additional models for quantum currency, according to Cryptorank; however, these proposals proved less practical, preventing their implementation.

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Privacy Protections Built Into the System

The latest Google study outlines a system involving a trusted central issuer, such as a bank or government institution, that would be responsible for creating and validating quantum tokens. Unlike current monetary systems, the issuer would possess no capability to track how the money moves through the economy once it enters circulation.

The system includes a built-in verification method that protects user privacy where individuals can perform a “swap test” on their tokens to determine whether the issuer is attempting to secretly tag or trace their money, Decrypt reported.

“If they’re not identical, that means the bank could be tracking you. Any attempt by the bank to secretly tag its money would be instantly revealed,” Gilboa told Decrypt.

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This article Google's 'Crazy Tool' Could Make Blockchain Obsolete – Experts Suggest 'Wild' And 'Exciting' Times Ahead Amid 'High Risk, High Reward' Endeavor originally appeared on Benzinga.com

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