Fighting Counterfeiters With Quantum Money

the_newsbeagle writes "This article discusses a proposal to create cash that can't be counterfeited by embedding quantum particles in banknotes. A counterfeiter trying to copy a real bill would have to precisely measure all the attributes of the embedded quantum particles — which is impossible under the tricky laws of quantum mechanics (PDF). MIT computer scientist Scott Aaronson, who famously offered a prize for anyone who could prove quantum computers are impossible, said, 'This is science fiction, but it’s science fiction that doesn’t violate any of the known laws of physics.'"

Comments

Re:Sooo

[girlintraining]

What happens when someone needs to look at the money to verify it's not counterfeit?

They get a cat that might be alive.

This sucks at the point-of-sale

[Anonymous Coward]

Where they have to use cats instead of the much simpler counterfeit checking pens.

This will be a profit loser and allergic shoppers will suffer in particular.