Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

Frontiers in Physics

Quantum voting protocol without quantum memory

Lidong Xu, Mingqiang Wang

Published Oct 6, 2022• 3 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Most of the quantum voting protocols are impractical due to the currently limited quantum storage capabilities. In this article, based on the interference principle of light, we proposed a new quantum voting protocol without quantum memory. In our protocol, the ballot is a sequence of non-orthogonal coherent states, the voting information is encoded by implying different phase shifts on the coherent states, and the vote counting is carried out by performing USD measurement on the coherent states. Particularly, the design of USD measurement on coherent states eliminates the need for quantum storage. Our protocol satisfies the general security requirements of quantum voting protocols and can resist various attacks. In addition, our protocol can be implemented by only linear optics and thus can be experimentally achieved with current technology.

DOI
10.3389/fphy.2022.1023992

Related papers

Quantum Bit Commitment Without Quantum Memory

Lidong Xu, Mingqiang Wang, Jing Qin

Abstract Commitment scheme is a fundamental cryptographic primitive that serve as building blocks for many other two-party protocols. In this paper, we propose a novel quantum bit commitment scheme, which is secure and does not require quantum memory. Our scheme processes the quantum information using coherent states and unambiguous state discrimination (USD) measurements, which can be experimentally realized by linear optics and photon detectors. We ensure the unconditionally hiding and binding property by preventing both Alice and Bob from obtaining complete information about the commitment in committing stage, and eliminate the requirement for quantum memory by performing USD measurements and phase shifts immediately after receiving the coherent states.

The Computer Journal•May 17, 2023•5 citations

Quantum Voting Protocol for Centralized and Distributed Voting Based on Phase-Flip Counting

Aydin, Ali Emre, Ammar Daskin

We introduce a quantum voting protocol that uses superposition and entanglement to enable anonymous voting with trusted voting machines, in a centralized setting with a single machine and in a distributed setting where several machines are linked to a voting center through quantum channels. A voter selects a candidate through a restricted ballot interface; the machine encodes the vote as a phase-flip operation, controlled by the voter's identity register, on an entangled candidate state. Tallying is performed by interference with a reference branch followed by a measurement of the candidate register, which reproduces the vote distribution without iterative classical counting. Because every tallying run consumes the quantum state, the machines store the cast choices classically and replay the voting stage for each run. The protocol uses only basic quantum gates (Hadamard and controlled-Z). We provide analytical examples (4 voters with 2 candidates and 8 voters with 3 candidates) and numerical experiments that simulate ideal conditions, depolarizing, memory, readout, and gate noise, faulty or mistaken ballots, larger instances with confidence intervals, and sampling convergence. The simulations reproduce the theoretical tally probabilities in the ideal case and show how the tally is distorted by noise and by faulty ballots; no error correction or mitigation is applied. Voter anonymity is formalized as the indistinguishability of tallying transcripts under vote permutations, and an identity-dephasing step renders the identity register exactly maximally mixed under the stated trust assumptions. The numbers of protocol runs needed for exact tallying and for winner identification are analyzed explicitly.

arXiv:2510.15243•Oct 17, 2025•0 citations

Quantum Distributed Ballot Scheme Based on Entanglement Swapping

Xiaoping Lou, Zhigang Chen

We proposed a novel quantum distributed ballot scheme using swapping quantum entanglement of Bell states. The entanglement is distributed over separated voter's sites; physical inaccessibility of any one site is sufficient to guarantee the anonymity of the votes. The ballot information is encoded by local operations performed on the particles of entangled EPR states, which ensures the security present scheme. The checking phase is designed in detail based on entanglement swapping. The security of these protocols with respect to various kinds of attack is discussed.

IEEE International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (TrustCom)•Nov 1, 2011•1 citation

Designing a Robust Quantum Signature Protocol Based on Quantum Key Distribution for E-Voting Applications

Sunil Prajapat, Urmika Gautam, Deepika Gautam +2 more

The rapid advancement of internet technology has raised attention to the importance of electronic voting in maintaining democracy and fairness in elections. E-voting refers to the use of electronic technology to facilitate the casting and counting of votes in elections. The need for designated verification arises from concerns about voter privacy, auditability, and the prevention of manipulation. Traditional e-voting systems use cryptographic techniques for security but lack verifiable proof of integrity. Integrating e-voting with a quantum designated verifier could address these challenges by leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics to enhance security and trustworthiness. In light of this, we propose a quantum e-voting scheme that uses a designated verifier signature. To ensure the confidentiality and authenticity of the voting process, the scheme uses quantum features like the no-cloning theorem and quantum key distribution. The proposed scheme has security properties like source hiding, non-transferability, and message anonymity. The proposed scheme is resistant to many quantum attacks, such as eavesdropping and impersonation. Due to designated verification, the scheme minimizes the risk of tempering. This paper provides a detailed description of the proposed scheme and analyzes its security properties. Therefore, the proposed scheme is efficient, practical, and secure.

Mathematics•Aug 19, 2024•11 citations

Are Quantum Voting Protocols Practical?

Nitin Jha, Abhishek Parakh

Quantum voting protocols aim to offer ballot secrecy and publicly verifiable tallies using physical guarantees from quantum mechanics, rather than relying solely on computational hardness. This article surveys whether such quantum voting protocols are practical. We begin by outlining core mathematical ideas such as the superposition principle, the no-cloning theorem, and quantum entanglement. We then define a common system and threat model, identifying key actors, trust assumptions, and security goals. Representative protocol families are reviewed, including entanglement-based schemes with central tallying, self-tallying designs that enable public verification, and authority-minimized approaches that certify untrusted devices through observable correlations. Finally, we evaluate implementation challenges, including loss, noise, device imperfections, scalability, and coercion resistance, and discuss realistic near-term deployment scenarios for small-scale elections.

quant-pharXiv:2601.17514•Jan 27, 2026•0 citations

Efficient Quantum Voting with Information-Theoretic Security

Emil T. Khabiboulline, Juspreet Singh Sandhu, Marco Ugo Gambetta +2 more

Ensuring security and integrity of elections constitutes an important challenge with wide-ranging societal implications. Classically, security guarantees can be ensured based on computational complexity, which may be challenged by quantum computers. We show that the use of quantum networks can enable information-theoretic security for the desirable aspects of a distributed voting scheme in a resource-efficient manner. In our approach, ballot information is encoded in quantum states that enable an exponential reduction in communication complexity compared to classical communication. In addition, we provide an efficient and secure anonymous queuing protocol based on a distributed secure sum. As a result, our scheme only requires modest quantum memories with size scaling logarithmically with the number of voters. This intrinsic efficiency together with certain noise-robustness of our protocol paves the way for its physical implementation in realistic quantum networks.

arXiv:2112.14242•Dec 28, 2021•4 citations
Most of the quantum voting protocols are impractical due to the currently limited quantum storage capabilities. In this article, based on the interference principle of light, we proposed a new quantum voting protocol without quantum memory. In our protocol, the ballot is a sequence of non-orthogonal coherent states, the voting information is encoded by implying different phase shifts on the coherent states, and the vote counting is carried out by performing USD measurement on the coherent states. Particularly, the design of USD measurement on coherent states eliminates the need for quantum storage. Our protocol satisfies the general security requirements of quantum voting protocols and can resist various attacks. In addition, our protocol can be implemented by only linear optics and thus can be experimentally achieved with current technology.
Abstract Commitment scheme is a fundamental cryptographic primitive that serve as building blocks for many other two-party protocols. In this paper, we propose a novel quantum bit commitment scheme, which is secure and does not require quantum memory. Our scheme processes the quantum information using coherent states and unambiguous state discrimination (USD) measurements, which can be experimentally realized by linear optics and photon detectors. We ensure the unconditionally hiding and binding property by preventing both Alice and Bob from obtaining complete information about the commitment in committing stage, and eliminate the requirement for quantum memory by performing USD measurements and phase shifts immediately after receiving the coherent states.
We introduce a quantum voting protocol that uses superposition and entanglement to enable anonymous voting with trusted voting machines, in a centralized setting with a single machine and in a distributed setting where several machines are linked to a voting center through quantum channels. A voter selects a candidate through a restricted ballot interface; the machine encodes the vote as a phase-flip operation, controlled by the voter's identity register, on an entangled candidate state. Tallying is performed by interference with a reference branch followed by a measurement of the candidate register, which reproduces the vote distribution without iterative classical counting. Because every tallying run consumes the quantum state, the machines store the cast choices classically and replay the voting stage for each run. The protocol uses only basic quantum gates (Hadamard and controlled-Z). We provide analytical examples (4 voters with 2 candidates and 8 voters with 3 candidates) and numerical experiments that simulate ideal conditions, depolarizing, memory, readout, and gate noise, faulty or mistaken ballots, larger instances with confidence intervals, and sampling convergence. The simulations reproduce the theoretical tally probabilities in the ideal case and show how the tally is distorted by noise and by faulty ballots; no error correction or mitigation is applied. Voter anonymity is formalized as the indistinguishability of tallying transcripts under vote permutations, and an identity-dephasing step renders the identity register exactly maximally mixed under the stated trust assumptions. The numbers of protocol runs needed for exact tallying and for winner identification are analyzed explicitly.
We proposed a novel quantum distributed ballot scheme using swapping quantum entanglement of Bell states. The entanglement is distributed over separated voter's sites; physical inaccessibility of any one site is sufficient to guarantee the anonymity of the votes. The ballot information is encoded by local operations performed on the particles of entangled EPR states, which ensures the security present scheme. The checking phase is designed in detail based on entanglement swapping. The security of these protocols with respect to various kinds of attack is discussed.
The rapid advancement of internet technology has raised attention to the importance of electronic voting in maintaining democracy and fairness in elections. E-voting refers to the use of electronic technology to facilitate the casting and counting of votes in elections. The need for designated verification arises from concerns about voter privacy, auditability, and the prevention of manipulation. Traditional e-voting systems use cryptographic techniques for security but lack verifiable proof of integrity. Integrating e-voting with a quantum designated verifier could address these challenges by leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics to enhance security and trustworthiness. In light of this, we propose a quantum e-voting scheme that uses a designated verifier signature. To ensure the confidentiality and authenticity of the voting process, the scheme uses quantum features like the no-cloning theorem and quantum key distribution. The proposed scheme has security properties like source hiding, non-transferability, and message anonymity. The proposed scheme is resistant to many quantum attacks, such as eavesdropping and impersonation. Due to designated verification, the scheme minimizes the risk of tempering. This paper provides a detailed description of the proposed scheme and analyzes its security properties. Therefore, the proposed scheme is efficient, practical, and secure.
Quantum voting protocols aim to offer ballot secrecy and publicly verifiable tallies using physical guarantees from quantum mechanics, rather than relying solely on computational hardness. This article surveys whether such quantum voting protocols are practical. We begin by outlining core mathematical ideas such as the superposition principle, the no-cloning theorem, and quantum entanglement. We then define a common system and threat model, identifying key actors, trust assumptions, and security goals. Representative protocol families are reviewed, including entanglement-based schemes with central tallying, self-tallying designs that enable public verification, and authority-minimized approaches that certify untrusted devices through observable correlations. Finally, we evaluate implementation challenges, including loss, noise, device imperfections, scalability, and coercion resistance, and discuss realistic near-term deployment scenarios for small-scale elections.
Ensuring security and integrity of elections constitutes an important challenge with wide-ranging societal implications. Classically, security guarantees can be ensured based on computational complexity, which may be challenged by quantum computers. We show that the use of quantum networks can enable information-theoretic security for the desirable aspects of a distributed voting scheme in a resource-efficient manner. In our approach, ballot information is encoded in quantum states that enable an exponential reduction in communication complexity compared to classical communication. In addition, we provide an efficient and secure anonymous queuing protocol based on a distributed secure sum. As a result, our scheme only requires modest quantum memories with size scaling logarithmically with the number of voters. This intrinsic efficiency together with certain noise-robustness of our protocol paves the way for its physical implementation in realistic quantum networks.