Solana and post-quantum security startup Project Eleven have deployed a post-quantum cryptography environment on testnet, using the ML-DSA algorithm that NIST formally standardized in 2024. The test results were stark: signatures that were about 64 bytes under Ed25519 expanded to roughly 1,300 to 2,500 bytes, or around 20x to 40x larger, while overall testnet throughput dropped by about 90%.
Larger signatures came with a direct performance hit
The figures came from live testing rather than theory. Project Eleven CEO Alex Pruden cited the data directly, showing that the shift to ML-DSA affected two basic parts of network operation at once: transaction signature size and the amount of traffic the network could process. For a chain known for high throughput, that kind of trade-off is hard to ignore.
ML-DSA is the standardized name for CRYSTALS-Dilithium. In August 2024, NIST added it to FIPS 204 as one of the official standards for post-quantum digital signatures. Its security rests on lattice problems, which are regarded as difficult even for quantum computers. By contrast, elliptic curve cryptography such as Ed25519 relies on assumptions that could be broken by Shor’s algorithm. The cost is visible in the data: lattice-based signatures are much larger.
Solana exposes quantum risk differently from Bitcoin and Ethereum
The test also drew attention to a structural issue beyond raw performance. According to the source material, Bitcoin and Ethereum addresses are derived from hashed public keys. That gives them a kind of quantum buffer, because an attacker would still need the public key before attempting to break the underlying cryptography. If an address has never sent a transaction, its public key has not been broadcast on-chain.
Solana works differently. Its account addresses are the original public keys themselves. That means if quantum computers ever become capable of breaking elliptic curve cryptography, the attack path would be more immediate on Solana, since accounts do not need to reveal anything new through a transaction first. In that sense, the chain faces a more direct form of quantum exposure.
Ethereum has a migration sketch, while Solana has no mainnet roadmap yet
The two ecosystems are at different stages in planning. In February 2026, Vitalik Buterin published a document called “Strawmap,” outlining a post-quantum migration over about four years and seven hard forks. The plan includes EIP-8141, which proposes native account abstraction and would let accounts move to post-quantum signature types such as ML-DSA.
Matt Sorg, vice president of technology at the Solana Foundation, said the goal is to keep Solana secure today and for decades to come. Still, the current testnet deployment is described only as an early concrete step, and Solana has not released a formal mainnet upgrade roadmap. During the transition, the community has discussed Winternitz Vaults as a temporary option: a hash-based quantum-safe mechanism that lets users voluntarily move assets into a quantum-safe mode without requiring a full network-wide upgrade.