quantum-resistant

The Ethereum scaling network Starknet, built by StarkWare, has indicated that it is actively considering transforming into an independent Layer 1 network (L1), with 2027 set as the target date to become the first fully quantum-resistant network. STRK was approximately $0.073 on Friday, up about 20% in 24 hours, more than doubling from around $0.03 in April.StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson stated that after becoming L1, Starknet will be able to control security upgrades independently, without waiting for Ethereum to advance related work. As a Layer 2 network (L2), Starknet currently relies on Ethereum for security; after transitioning to L1, it will verify and secure transactions on its own.Eli Ben-Sasson pointed out that quantum computers may potentially break the elliptic curve cryptography used by Bitcoin and Ethereum in the future, and developments in AI in the field of mathematics also pose another risk. The Ethereum roadmap is expected to complete its core quantum-resistant infrastructure around 2029, while Starknet plans to advance this to 2027; currently, no quantum computer exists that can break these systems.

The Zcash development team plans to add post-quantum signature support to the network in January. Zakura engineer Roman Akhtariev stated in an engineering blog that the team plans to implement post-quantum signature opcodes in Zcash in January. These opcodes will enable Zcash to verify hash-based signatures, thereby resisting quantum computing attacks. The team has not yet confirmed a specific network activation date. This upgrade aims to prevent attackers from using current public keys to reverse-engineer and forge payment authorizations from wallet owners.The initial phase of this upgrade will protect transparent transactions. Zcash has two payment methods: shielded payments hide the sender, receiver, and amount; transparent payments are similar to Bitcoin, where addresses and amounts are visible on the chain. According to CoinDesk, based on ZecStats data, approximately 11.96 million of the 16.98 million issued ZEC are stored in the transparent pool, accounting for about 70%. The January plan primarily targets this public portion. Additionally, Zakura has developed a private query tool that allows wallets to check balances without exposing associated addresses to the server; the experimental version is available in the "Private queries" settings of the Zcash wallet Vizor.Before the release of Zakura's engineering article, Ethereum researcher Justin Drake warned holders on Thursday to prepare for what he called "bunker mode," stating that in the worst-case scenario, AI could find shortcuts to break the mathematical protections of Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets in "months rather than years."

According to CoinDesk, Project Eleven, which focuses on defending against future quantum computing attacks, and the privacy-oriented proof-of-work blockchain Quantus plan to complete integration in the first quarter of 2027. This will connect Quantus to Project Eleven's institutional custody platform Strongpoint, allowing institutions to manage Quantus keys and approve transactions through hardware security modules, internal policies, and audit systems.The significance of this integration goes beyond a single chain. Networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum are unlikely to adopt the same post-quantum signature schemes or migration paths. Banks holding multiple assets may need to adapt to various new cryptographic forms simultaneously, without weakening control over transaction approval, signing, and auditing. Alex Pruden, co-founder and CEO of Project Eleven, stated that this transition could become a barrier for institutions adopting cryptocurrencies, as they have already prepared for post-quantum transitions outside of blockchain.Christopher Smith, co-founder and CEO of Quantus, believes that AI is accelerating everything, including quantum hardware and quantum software. The tail risk of sudden quantum attacks must be incorporated into all portfolio decisions, as it falls under fiduciary duty. The design of Strongpoint decouples the institutional control layer from the signature schemes used by the underlying blockchain. Even if different cryptography is adopted on-chain, custodians can still retain approval processes, hardware key storage, and audit trails. Quantus uses the post-quantum signature standard ML-DSA selected by the National Institute of Standards and Technology for key generation and transaction signing.

The Ethereum Foundation (EF) stated that the Protocol Cluster has released two new articles that systematically assess the upcoming network upgrade Hegotá. Among them, the "Hegotá EIP Opinion Post and Tier List" evaluates and ranks the currently proposed 62 EIPs, marking the first time the team has published a unified EIP rating list for a major network upgrade.It was reported that approximately 60 researchers, engineers, and domain experts from 9 teams under the Protocol Cluster participated in the review, submitting a total of 397 rating opinions and engaging in live discussions on controversial proposals. The accompanying article outlines the current and future key directions of the Ethereum protocol layer, with one core goal being to promote Ethereum L1's quantum resistance by December 2029.The Ethereum Foundation indicated that the aforementioned upgrade plans, long-term commitments, and shared priorities at the cluster level provide the contextual basis for finalizing the scope of the Hegotá upgrade and the EIP ratings. Additionally, the Protocol Cluster will hold an AMA on September 16 at 14:00 UTC in the r/ethereum community on Reddit to discuss topics such as the Hegotá EIP ratings and key protocol developments.

Vitalik recently updated EIP-8141 "Frame Transaction" proposal, with core improvements including atomic batch execution of up to 64 operations, social recovery (similar to Google account recovery, without the need for a mnemonic phrase), P256 quantum-resistant signatures, and the ability for anyone to pay gas fees for users, significantly enhancing the usability of Ethereum wallets.It is reported that the improvement proposal was co-authored by Vitalik, lightclient, and 10 other experts, and is planned to be included in the 2027 Hegotá upgrade, marking a significant native implementation of Ethereum account abstraction.

QuFi Network launched a post-quantum verification platform and completed proof of concept on the Bitcoin testnet.The platform aims to address the security threats of quantum computing to crypto assets at a low cost by separating verification from settlement.

Ayo Akinyele, Senior Director of Engineering at Ripple, stated that the company is developing a four-phase quantum-resistant migration plan for the XRP Ledger, aiming to complete the transition before quantum computers become a real threat. The plan includes assessing the network's exposure, testing quantum-resistant cryptographic solutions, running existing security systems in parallel with quantum-resistant alternatives, and preparing emergency response pathways for scenarios where quantum computing advances exceed expectations.Akinyele emphasized that migration is not just about replacing a cryptographic algorithm, but requires more flexible infrastructure, stronger key management, and clearer upgrade paths. The XRP Ledger has supported changing the keys that control accounts without altering the accounts themselves, a feature that is expected to reduce the difficulty of future migrations, but independent validators on the network still need to coordinate any broader rule changes.Meanwhile, Anthropic's model last month reduced the workload required to break leading post-quantum signature candidates by 67 million times, and Bitcoin and Ethereum developers also released their respective migration plans this week. Akinyele pointed out that AI and quantum computing are different technologies, but they are driving financial infrastructure to evolve in the same direction, as AI agents begin to trade and pay autonomously, raising new requirements for payment infrastructure that is always online and natively internet-based.

Justin Sun stated at the Bitcoin Asia 2026 conference in Hong Kong that the threat of quantum computing to blockchain and the entire financial system is widespread, and traditional banks like JPMorgan are also facing risks.Due to the highly decentralized nature of the Bitcoin community, which involves multiple participants such as miners, exchanges, and WBTC, reaching a consensus on quantum resistance will take a long time. Justin Sun mentioned that TRON has been developing quantum-resistant mechanisms over the past year, and in the first half of this year, they released a quantum-resistant address solution and launched it on the testnet, with plans to upgrade the entire network to a mainstream cryptocurrency network with quantum resistance capabilities by the end of this year.

According to The Block, StarkWare announced that the first quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction has been successfully executed.StarkWare's Avihu Levy used signature aggregation technology to protect public key data while ensuring that transactions are secure in the Bitcoin mempool, thereby introducing a second layer of security to protect assets.

The Responsible Fintech Institute (RFI) and the cryptocurrency asset custody infrastructure provider Safeheron announced the launch of a pilot program for quantum-resistant digital asset wallets and on-chain transfers, with participants from Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The pilot operates on the quantum-resistant NEAR testnet and uses a multiparty computation protocol that supports the ML-DSA-65 standard.Participating regulatory bodies include the Abu Dhabi Global Market, Bhutan's Gelephu Financial Services Office, and Malta's Financial Services Authority, with Bison Bank and DK Bank participating as financial institutions. The banks will test wallet generation and transfers in a shared application environment, while regulatory bodies will observe in the initial phase and later participate in governance workflows. The organizers plan to release a white paper covering research, protocol design, and testing results, and gradually open-source the underlying technology. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority plans to prepare the Hong Kong banking sector to fully address quantum security risks by 2030, while a report from the Bank for International Settlements published in 2025 suggests that financial institutions should migrate to quantum-resistant systems in phases.

Starknet announced that it has completed the quantum-resistant signature transfer test, where a wallet account using a quantum-resistant signature mechanism completed a real transfer on the Starknet mainnet, with a transaction fee of about 6 cents, and can be queried through the block explorer. This account is currently an experimental, unaudited version, mainly used for research testing. StarkWare stated that this transfer benefits from the design of the Starknet account model.Unlike most blockchains that fix the signature algorithm at the protocol layer, each account on Starknet is a smart contract that can autonomously define the accepted signature schemes, allowing users to upgrade their wallets from traditional elliptic curve signatures to quantum-resistant signatures without hard forks, asset migrations, or changing addresses. StarkWare pointed out that most blockchains face quantum computing risks because wallet signatures and underlying verification systems rely on elliptic curve cryptography. Once large-scale quantum computers appear, running Shor's algorithm could potentially break the related encryption systems. Currently, the Starknet ecosystem supports a quantum-resistant signature scheme based on Falcon-512, which is part of the NIST post-quantum cryptography standardization process, with relevant implementations promoted by ecosystem teams and organizations such as OpenZeppelin.

Cryptocurrency financial services company Galaxy Digital announced the establishment of a $5 million Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Initiative, funding developers to research solutions to address future quantum computing threats. The program is open for applications starting today, with funding directions including quantum-resistant signature algorithms, wallet migration tools, and security audits.Galaxy stated that it hopes to attract more institutions to jointly invest and research, accelerating Bitcoin's transition to quantum-resistant cryptography. According to CryptoQuant data, if future quantum computers have the capability to crack Bitcoin's existing cryptographic algorithms, approximately 6.9 million BTC (equivalent to about $46.1 billion at current prices) may face the risk of theft. Although the industry generally believes that quantum computing does not pose an immediate threat to the Bitcoin network, related preparations should be initiated as early as possible due to the need for long-term collaboration among developers, wallets, exchanges, and users for protocol upgrades.

The TRON Nile testnet has recently launched a quantum-resistant upgrade and released the mandatory upgrade version GreatVoyage-v4.8.2-PQ1-build1. This version introduces post-quantum signature capabilities for the first time, supporting two signature algorithms: Falcon-512 and ML-DSA-44, further advancing TRON's technological exploration and capability verification in the direction of quantum resistance.According to the official introduction, the aforementioned capabilities can be applied in scenarios such as transaction signing, SR block signing, P2P relay node handshakes, and TVM contract verification. TRON reminds developers who have deployed nodes on the Nile testnet to complete the version upgrade as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the related new features will only take effect on the Nile testnet after being approved through proposal voting; the activation of testnet functions does not mean that the mainnet will go live simultaneously.

The Algorand Foundation officially released a roadmap for quantum resistance upgrades, planning to launch a series of protocol transformations in 2026, and achieve overall "quantum security" capabilities for the network by the end of 2027 to 2028, in response to the potential threats posed by future quantum computing to existing cryptographic systems.The roadmap indicates that the first phase will introduce post-quantum account systems, multi-signature wallets, and staking support, followed by a gradual upgrade of core protocol components to achieve a comprehensive encryption migration from the wallet layer to the infrastructure. It is reported that several public chain ecosystems, including the Ethereum Foundation and Solana, have also initiated similar research and migration plans for quantum-resistant cryptography.

According to CoinDesk, the Stellar Development Foundation has announced a quantum security plan to migrate all XLM accounts to a quantum-resistant signature scheme by the end of 2027, while keeping existing addresses and on-chain transaction history unchanged.The foundation stated that this migration will be completed through protocol layer updates to address the potential cracking risks posed by future quantum computing to existing cryptographic signature algorithms, and to ensure that user accounts do not need to change addresses or rebuild transaction records during the migration process.

According to a video shared by DEGEN NEWS, Nic Carter, a partner at Castle Island Ventures, stated that Solana needs a complete rebuild to defend against quantum attacks. He pointed out, "This will be tricky for Solana because they have highly optimized around a certain variant of elliptic curve and have also made targeted optimizations at the hardware level.The entire core idea of Solana is high throughput. Ultimately, they may adopt lattice-based cryptography, but the speed will slow down, and the throughput may decrease, which is precisely what Solana is all about."

On May 14, BNB Chain released the "BSC Post-Quantum Cryptography Migration Report," stating that it has completed the migration testing for quantum-resistant cryptography for transaction signatures and the consensus layer, using the NIST standardized post-quantum signature algorithm ML-DSA-44 (Dilithium) and the pqSTARK aggregation scheme.The report shows that BSC has replaced transaction signatures from ECDSA to ML-DSA-44 and switched consensus voting aggregation from BLS12-381 to pqSTARK to address the potential threats posed by future quantum computing to the existing elliptic curve cryptography system. However, post-quantum signatures also significantly increase the on-chain data volume: the size of a single transaction has increased from about 110 bytes to approximately 2.5KB; the block size in a 2000 TPS scenario has increased from about 130KB to around 2MB; and the TPS in the testing environment has decreased by about 40%-50%.BSC stated that the current network bottleneck mainly comes from the larger transaction data propagation, rather than the consensus protocol itself. Meanwhile, the consensus layer aggregation still maintains high efficiency, with pqSTARK achieving a signature compression ratio of about 43:1, and the additional burden on validators remains within a controllable range. The report concludes that existing technology can achieve "quantum-resistant" deployment for blockchain, but future issues related to network bandwidth and data scalability still need to be addressed.

According to Decrypt, the cryptocurrency technology company Quantography Labs has announced the launch of the early access version of the cryptocurrency wallet Lock.com. This product uses "Isolated Signing" and an Air-Gapped architecture, enabling offline private key management without the need for dedicated hardware wallet devices.The official statement indicates that Lock.com separates the signing environment from the network broadcasting environment: private keys are always stored in a completely offline device, while transactions are created and broadcast on a connected device, thus avoiding private key exposure to the internet. The platform emphasizes that users can directly use existing devices without relying on third-party hardware manufacturers or supply chains. Additionally, Lock.com integrates post-quantum cryptography architecture, including ML-DSA digital signatures and ML-KEM key encapsulation mechanisms, to enhance security in future quantum computing environments.Quantography Labs stated that the current early access phase is mainly used to collect user feedback and prepare for a subsequent full launch.

According to Cointelegraph, Tezos ecosystem developers have launched a prototype of a private blockchain payment testnet called TzEL, aimed at resisting future quantum computing attacks.This prototype uses post-quantum cryptography and zk-STARK proofs to protect transaction data and encrypted payment metadata, preventing "collect then decrypt" type attacks. TzEL leverages Tezos's data availability layer to handle the larger proof sizes brought by post-quantum cryptography (approximately 300 KB), which has been one of the main technical obstacles to building scalable quantum-resistant privacy systems on-chain. TzEL is currently running on the Tezos testnet and is still in the development stage, with the transition of the Tezos ecosystem to quantum-resistant cryptography still in its early stages.

According to FinanceFeeds, Alex Thorn, the research director of Galaxy Digital, stated that as advancements in quantum computing hardware accelerate, the Bitcoin community is shifting from decentralized debates to forming a preliminary consensus on quantum threats. The core direction is to gradually introduce post-quantum cryptography (PQC) through soft forks, achieving an upgrade of the address system and long-term security assurance.The report points out that the current Bitcoin signature mechanism, which uses the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm, can theoretically be cracked by Shor's algorithm. Approximately 2 million BTC from early p2pkh addresses are at risk because their public keys have been exposed, facing the potential risk of "collecting first and decrypting later." The community tends to promote a "migration window" mechanism to guide users in transferring their assets to new quantum-resistant addresses, and after a multi-year grace period, to implement freezing or destruction of untransferred assets to prevent large-scale market impacts in extreme situations. Additionally, the consensus includes enhancing "cryptographic agility," which allows protocols to switch signature algorithms without interrupting the network.The current proposal leans towards a dual-signature mechanism that uses ECDSA and PQC (such as Dilithium) in parallel, ensuring security redundancy while facilitating a smooth transition. Analysts believe that this approach transforms the quantum threat from a "black swan event" into a manageable technological upgrade, helping to solidify Bitcoin's security foundation as a long-term store of value asset.