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Solana and Aptos developers started testing new âquantum-safeâ security this week, aiming to protect their blockchains from future attacks by powerful quantum computers. SOL USD traded around $126 while APT price was near recent lows as traders mostly shrugged.
Longâterm security upgrades like this often move prices only once they become mainstream topics. Behind the scenes, governments and big tech already treat quantum risk as a real problem for the next decade, not sciâfi.
Letâs start simple. Todayâs blockchains rely on math puzzles that normal computers canât easily solve. Quantum computers are like superâcharged calculators that may eventually solve some of these puzzles much faster, including the ones that protect your private keys.
If a strong quantum computer arrives and your chain isnât ready, an attacker may grab a public key from the blockchain and reverseâengineer the private key. That would let them sign fake transactions, drain wallets, or even attack validators. Think of it like someone finding a master key that opens not just your apartment, but the whole building.
The Solana Foundation said it worked with postâquantum security firm Project Eleven to test new kinds of digital signatures on a Solana testnet. These âpostâquantum signaturesâ aim to stay secure even in a world where quantum computers exist, and oldâschool cryptography fails. Developers aim to demonstrate that they can execute these safer transactions without compromising Solanaâs speed or user experience.
Solana already took an early step with the Winternitz Vault, an optional wallet feature that generates new keys for every transaction to reduce exposure. That does not alter the base protocol, but it provides security-focused users with extra protection. For everyday users, it demonstrates that Solana takes long-term security as seriously as it does performance.
Aptos is moving in a similar direction. A new proposal, AIP-137, would add SLH-DSA, a hash-based, quantum-resistant signature scheme standardized by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Aptos would retain its current Ed25519 signatures as the default and offer SLH-DSA as an optional account type for users who require maximum future-proofing.
Having reviewed the technical specs for AIP-137, itâs important to understand that the security comes with a heavy âperformance tax.â
SLH-DSA signatures are 82 times larger than the Ed25519 ones we use today. For a high-speed chain like Aptos, this means the network load could spike significantly if it becomes the default, which is why it remains an âoptionalâ account type for now.
Importantly, both Solana and Aptos utilize hash functions like SHA-256, which the new schemes already rely on. That means they do not need to invent completely new math from scratch. The tradeâoff is bigger signatures and slower verification, which increases network load if everyone switches at once.
If you want to zoom out on Solanaâs broader progress and challenges, check our articles on Solana-Sicherheit, Solana-Blockchain-Entwicklung, and the Solana-Netzwerk. For Aptos context, you can also see how token design affects price in our Aptos-Blockchain coverage.
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Currently, most experts do not anticipate that quantum computers will break Bitcoin or major blockchain networks in the next few years. Grayscale even called quantum risk a âred herringâ for 2026 prices, according to CSO Online. However, governments recognize a longer-term problem and are already pushing for change.
The UKâs cybersecurity agency (NCSC) urges organizations to adopt quantum-safe encryption by 2035, according to The Guardian. NIST has already finalized several postâquantum standards like MLâKEM, MLâDSA, and SLHâDSA, which blockchains such as Aptos now want to use. This matters for you because banks, cloud providers, and eventually wallets will shift to these new standardsâand chains that adopt them early signal âweâre built to last.â
We are already seeing experiments with quantum-safe Bitcoin. BTQ and others have demoed ways to protect BTC using NISTâapproved algorithms, according to PR Newswire. Cloudflare and several big financial institutions also integrate quantumâresistant protocols into their security stacks, as reported by Barronâs. Crypto is not ahead of the world here; it is trying not to fall behind.
For long-term investors, this becomes a key consideration. Just as you ask, âHow decentralized is this chain?â and âHow are fees?â, you will start asking, âWhat is their quantum migration plan?â Solana and Aptos now have a concrete answer: testnets, optional quantumâsafe account types, and clear paths to upgrade later.
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Short term, you do not need to panicâsell Bitcoin or move all your coins to âquantumâ projects. Even highly skeptical cryptographers like Adam Back say the nearâterm risk is tiny and largeâscale quantum machines are still decades away. That gives developers time to test, refine, and roll out upgrades in an orderly way.
However, there is a quieter risk called âstore now, crack later.â An attacker can record encrypted data or public keys today, then wait until quantum computers are strong enough to try to break them. That is why security agencies already push for migration plans, even though the scary computers are not here yet.
So what do you actually do today?
This story is less about a price pump today and more about which chains you trust to guard your money 10â20 years from now. As more networks follow Solana and Aptos into post-quantum testing, you will have a clearer way to distinguish serious infrastructure from short-lived experiments.
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The post Solana and Aptos Crypto Race to Go Quantum Resistant: Is Your Crypto Portfolio Quantum Safe? appeared first on 99Bitcoins.
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