PQ-NEXT Core: The Pilot Edition – Municipality of Aigaleo
Discover the PQ-NEXT Pilots
The PQ-NEXT solutions will be validated through large-scale pilots across the finance, critical infrastructure, telecommunications, and digital identity sectors, leveraging selected digital twin use cases. Throughout this blog series, we will take a closer look at each pilot, exploring its objectives, implementation, expected outcomes, and its role in advancing the transition to post-quantum security.
The Municipality of Aigaleo Pilot
Pilot 4: Quantum-Safe Digital Documents and Identity for Municipality Services of Aigaleo using Quantum-Safe Blockchain and EBSI Integration
The Pilot
The pilot focuses on the digital issuance and verification of the Property Exact Address Certificate (Βεβαίωση Ακριβούς Διεύθυνσης Ακινήτου), a real municipal administrative service. Citizens submit an application either electronically or in person, the Municipality processes the request and issues the official certificate, which is represented as a Verifiable Credential (VC). The pilot demonstrates how post-quantum secure digital credentials can support trusted and future-proof municipal service delivery.
The Why
What is the problem the pilot will address, the sector motivation, and the quantum threat rationale?
Municipal administrations issue hundreds of official certificates every year, many of which are still processed using conventional document exchange and paper-based verification procedures. Citizens often need to present these documents repeatedly to different public authorities or organisations, while municipalities need to ensure the authenticity and integrity of the issued certificates.
The pilot addresses these challenges by demonstrating how a commonly requested municipal certificate can be issued as a digitally verifiable credential, simplifying verification while reducing administrative burden. At the same time, PQ-NEXT investigates how post-quantum cryptography can protect these digital credentials against future quantum-enabled attacks, ensuring the long-term trustworthiness of municipal digital services.
The How
The technical approach, deployment environment, tools, and expected outcomes
The pilot digitalises the existing municipal workflow without changing its administrative logic. A municipal officer registers the application, uploads the required supporting document, and issues an Application Receipt Verifiable Credential after the request is officially registered. Once the application has been processed, the Municipality issues the final Property Exact Address Certificate as a Verifiable Credential, which is stored in the citizen’s digital wallet.
The solution is deployed within the Municipality of Aigaleo and integrates the PQ-NEXT credential management components with the municipal workflow. The pilot demonstrates secure credential issuance, wallet-based presentation, verification of Verifiable Presentations (VPs), and trusted certificate validation using post-quantum-ready cryptographic mechanisms. The expected outcome is a practical demonstration of secure, privacy-preserving and future-proof digital public service delivery that can be replicated by other municipalities.