The Near One team announced on May 6th of this year that the NEAR Protocol cryptocurrency network will adopt ML-DSA (FIPS-204, formerly known as dilithium) as the first post-quantum signature scheme. The deployment will start on the testnet (testnet) by the end of the second quarter of 2026.
ML-DSA is a signature scheme based on lattices (mathematical structures that quantum computers cannot efficiently solve with known algorithms) that was approved by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2024, as already reported by CriptoNoticias.
Near One said the ML-DSA was carried out based on its institutional support. First post-quantum standard validated by NIST After many years of international consideration. The statement does not detail the internal testing that was performed on the scheme, nor does it mention which alternatives were evaluated and discarded.
In most networks, a user’s address is generated directly from a cryptographic key. Changing that key means changing the direction and moving all assets. According to the team, this relationship does not exist in NEAR. User accounts are independent of the keys that control them.
This means users can adopt post-quantum keys in a single transactionYou send a single instruction to the network, without transferring funds, creating new accounts or making any additional adjustments, and from that moment your account will be protected with the new scheme. Near One describes the operation as equivalent to changing your password.
On the other hand, in networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, addresses are directly tied to a pair of cryptographic keys. Incorporate new signature schemes into those networks will be required hard fork (backwards incompatible protocol changes) or complex migrations. This requires a fairly difficult technical agreement process.
However, Near One recognizes that: Software and hardware wallets must be updated to support this rotation to work. Until that happens, protection does not reach the end user.
Announcement as the deadline approaches
The NEAR team’s urgency in the face of quantum advances is consistent with the vision put forward by some in the scientific community. Mikhail Lukin, co-founder of the Harvard University Quantum Initiative, estimates that a fault-tolerant quantum computer will: May be available by the end of this centuryadvancing the previous consensus in the field by 5 to 10 years.
Lukin’s predictions are in line with those of Google, Cloudflare, and Grayscale, as reported by CriptoNoticias. They have set 2029 as the horizon to complete their own post-quantum transition. NEAR aims to have its first testnet scheme operational before that deadline.
Similarly, on May 6, post-quantum cryptography company Project Eleven warned: “Q-Day” will arrive between 2030 and 2033 According to a report by CriptoNoticias, up to 6.9 million Bitcoins (about 33% of the total supply) could be leaked.
In this way, various protocols and networks, such as NEAR, begin practical tests for post-quantum schemes, while ecosystem participants speculate about “Q-day.”
(Tag Translation) Blockchain
