post-quantum

On Monday, U.S. President Trump signed two executive orders aimed at accelerating the development of U.S. quantum computing capabilities and advancing the government's transition to post-quantum cryptography. Although the executive orders did not directly mention Bitcoin, industry insiders believe this could benefit the blockchain's post-quantum security research and development.The two executive orders focus on defending against advanced cryptographic attacks and promoting cutting-edge quantum innovation. They include a clear timeline: to advance the construction of quantum sensors by September 2028 and require federal high-value assets and high-impact systems to complete the transition to post-quantum cryptography by the end of 2031. Project Eleven CEO Alex Pruden stated that this means the U.S. government will invest time and resources to achieve post-quantum security goals and may extend related requirements to the entire federal contractor system, not just limited to government agencies, thereby accelerating the implementation of post-quantum cryptographic technology.At the time of this policy announcement, the blockchain industry’s concern about quantum threats continues to rise. Organizations like the Ethereum Foundation and the Solana Foundation have begun advancing post-quantum security research and development, while the Bitcoin community is also discussing potential risks. Some publicly exposed Bitcoin addresses are believed to face the risk of private keys being derived once powerful quantum computers emerge in the future. Pruden pointed out that this executive order clearly sets the deadline for adopting post-quantum cryptography as 2031, which is more binding than the previous guidance from the U.S. government that proposed phasing out traditional cryptographic systems by 2035. For Bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency industry, government investment in post-quantum security may accelerate the maturity of related tools, standards, and migration paths.

According to The Defiant, Ethereum researchers Thomas Coratger, Justin Drake, and others released a proposal on June 1 at the Ethereum research forum, planning to establish a dedicated XMSS public key registry as the first concrete protocol upgrade for Ethereum's migration to post-quantum cryptography.This registry allows approximately 1 million validators to pre-register quantum-safe XMSS keys before the full switch to the BLS signature system, serving as an important "preheating phase" to reduce the impact of the subsequent switch on network stability. This proposal has been included in the Ethereum Foundation's protocol team's Strawmap roadmap, marking the first protocol fork on that roadmap.

Circle released the "Post-Quantum Security White Paper," proposing a phased post-quantum resilience roadmap focused on the long-term security of the Arc blockchain ecosystem.The roadmap covers multiple technical directions, including quantum secure signatures, private execution environments, validator hardening, infrastructure migration, and account recovery, applicable to core components such as the Arc network, USDC, smart contracts, and validators.Circle stated that it plans to provide post-quantum signature support when the Arc mainnet launches (in 2026) to enhance the ecosystem's ability to respond to future quantum computing threats.

NEAR Protocol stated on platform X that the team is adding post-quantum cryptography support for the network. NEAR's account model is different from Bitcoin and Ethereum; accounts are decoupled from cryptography and controlled through rotatable access keys.The NEAR One team is adding the NIST-approved lattice-based signature FIPS-204 scheme as the first post-quantum signature option. Once launched, any NEAR account holder can rotate keys through a single transaction, achieving quantum safety. NEAR is also collaborating with software and hardware wallets to advance post-quantum support.Through the chain signature feature, NEAR can provide threshold signatures for over 35 chains. The NEAR Intents team is developing a quantum-safe cross-chain signature solution. If other chains progress slowly in adopting post-quantum cryptography, NEAR can offer a quantum-safe environment. Aspects such as consensus mechanisms, validators, block synchronization, and transaction signatures also need to evolve for the post-quantum era, with the goal of achieving a one-time future-compatible migration.

According to the Korea Economic Daily, the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb has announced that it will introduce post-quantum cryptography (PQC) technology to guard against the risk of future quantum computers potentially breaking existing encryption systems.Bithumb plans to comprehensively apply PQC technology from virtual asset wallet management to identity authentication systems, focusing on protecting customer private keys, and will collaborate with security technology company ATON to encrypt various stages of data processing, including input, authentication, transmission, and storage. Additionally, Bithumb will strengthen its real-time monitoring system to detect new types of hacker attacks and abnormal trading patterns that utilize quantum computers.

The Zcash core development team Zcash Open Development Lab (ZODL) founder Josh Swihart released the latest progress on Zcash, proposing a strategic direction centered on "post-quantum security, scalability, and user experience," and using the Artemis II lunar mission as a metaphor to emphasize achieving seemingly impossible goals through technological breakthroughs. The ZODL team stated that Zcash is entering the "Zcash IV" phase, which will build infrastructure similar to a "lunar base" to support the protocol and application security scaling to billions of users, while promoting the vision of privacy transactions without large-scale financial surveillance.On the product and technology front, ZODL continues to iterate, with its 3.3.x version now launched on iOS and Android, adding hardware wallet connection management, SDK upgrades, and multiple experience optimizations, while advancing key developments such as Keystone wallet functionality and address system upgrades (ZIP 316, UIVK/UFVK). Meanwhile, the Zcash core team has fixed multiple system issues and is advancing the development of the Zallet alpha version, while strengthening unified address standards and wallet interaction experiences, laying the groundwork for future scalability and performance improvements.In addition, ZODL disclosed that its application data continues to grow and participated in a stablecoin privacy summit to strengthen industry collaboration. However, due to upgrades in regulation and network restrictions, ZODL has temporarily removed its app from the Russian app store. The team emphasized that privacy is not an option but a fundamental need in the digital age, and will continue to accelerate delivery pace to promote the popularization of ZEC and ecological development in the future.

According to the official blog, Circle's institutional-grade blockchain Arc has released a phased upgrade roadmap for post-quantum cryptography (PQ), planning to introduce post-quantum signature schemes at the launch of the mainnet, gradually covering full-stack layers such as private state protection, infrastructure hardening, and validator authentication.The Arc mainnet will support post-quantum signatures from the outset, using an opt-in mechanism that does not require mandatory migration or a full network reset, allowing users to independently create wallets with long-term security. The recent goal is to extend quantum resistance to the private virtual machine (VM) layer, protecting private balances, private transactions, and private payees, with public keys additionally encapsulated in a symmetric encryption layer under privacy mode.The mid-term plan is to advance the upgrade of the infrastructure layer, aligning with industry standards such as TLS 1.3, covering access control, cloud environments, and hardware security modules (HSM). The long-term goal is to complete the hardening of validator signatures. Given that Arc's block finalization time is less than 1 second, the current assessment considers the risk of quantum attacks in this phase to be relatively limited, and it will be steadily advanced after the post-quantum consensus toolchain matures.Circle also warns that attackers may adopt a "collect now, decrypt later" strategy, and institutions should plan their cryptographic migration paths as early as possible.

According to Cointelegraph, Google has set 2029 as the deadline for its post-quantum cryptography migration, warning that the threat of quantum computing may arrive sooner than expected.Google stated that the rapid advancements in quantum computing hardware and quantum error correction, along with updates to the timeline for quantum computers to break current encryption standards, have heightened the urgency for action. This is the first time Google has set a timeline for the deployment of post-quantum capabilities in its products, ahead of some industry predictions for "Q-Day." Google is developing its quantum chip Willow, which has 105 qubits and is one of the most powerful quantum processors currently available.

The Ethereum Foundation has announced the launch of a post-quantum security resource platform to centrally showcase Ethereum's research progress and roadmap in the direction of post-quantum security.The project is led by the post-quantum team and the cryptography team, and is promoted in collaboration with the protocol architecture and coordination teams. Relevant research has been ongoing for over 8 years. The platform covers the impact of post-quantum on various protocol layers, a complete roadmap, open-source code, and specifications. Currently, more than 10 client teams are participating in related development network testing.

According to Coindesk, the Ethereum Foundation (EF) is transforming its long-standing post-quantum research into a public engineering initiative, forming a dedicated post-quantum team and prioritizing this work as a strategic priority for the Ethereum network.Ethereum Foundation (EF) researcher Justin Drake stated that the newly established team will be led by Thomas Coratger, with support from leanVM cryptographer Emile. Researcher Justin Drake mentioned that Ethereum is shifting from background research to active engineering practices, including bi-weekly developer meetings on post-quantum transactions and building a multi-client post-quantum consensus test network.

ChainCatcher news, the SEC has officially designated the Naoris Protocol as a reference model for the financial industry's transition to post-quantum cryptography in the "Post-Quantum Financial Infrastructure Framework" (PQFIF). This strategic document submitted to the U.S. Crypto Assets Working Group places the Naoris Protocol at the core of U.S. cybersecurity regulatory priorities.This strategic document is released against the backdrop of the rise of quantum computers, which pose an existential threat to the protection of digital assets: by 2034, the probability of quantum computers related to cryptography breaking the RSA-2048 algorithm is between 17% and 34%, threatening trillions of dollars in digital assets. The "Post-Quantum Financial Infrastructure Framework" references Naoris three times. The Naoris Protocol stands out with its "Sub-Zero Layer" architecture, which allows the integration of post-quantum cryptography into existing EVM blockchains without the need for hard forks or interruptions. Its approach employs NIST-approved algorithms (ML-KEM, ML-DSA, SLH-DSA) to secure blockchain infrastructure.

ChainCatcher news, the research organization ZKnox, supported by the Ethereum Foundation, has been officially established to enhance the security and efficiency of Ethereum. ZKnox focuses on post-quantum cryptography and has optimized the implementation of Number Theoretic Transform (NTT) to improve the computational efficiency of post-quantum signature verification.

ChainCatcher news, according to Hong Kong media Ming Pao, the Vice Chairman of the Asian Financial Technology Association and a part-time lecturer at the University of Hong Kong's School of Professional and Continuing Education, Chan Wing-fung, stated that asset tokenization has become the hottest application of blockchain in the financial industry. The use of "post-quantum cryptography (PQC)" technology can maintain and even enhance the security of blockchain. Recently, a fintech startup in Hong Kong also announced plans to issue the world's first post-quantum stablecoin, using post-quantum encryption technology to protect transactions and assets. This stablecoin is pegged to the US dollar at a 1:1 ratio and uses post-quantum encryption algorithms to ensure transaction security.

ChainCatcher news, the post-quantum privacy protection public chain project Abelian has announced the completion of a $3 million financing round, led by Draper Dragon, with other investors including high-net-worth individuals and family offices. This fundraising will be used for project technology development, reserves, marketing, and supporting Abelian's ecological partners.It is reported that Abelian is the world's first post-quantum (quantum-resistant) privacy protection L1 blockchain, using NIST standardized lattice-based cryptographic algorithms and proving its security through cryptography. It aims to achieve Digital Gold 2.0, creating a quantum-resistant and privacy-protecting crypto ecosystem, and building L2 networks and post-quantum zero-knowledge bridges to support EVM-equivalent blockchain networks, empowering Web3 and DeFi applications. (source link)