Stellar unveils its quantum defense plan

The Stellar Development Foundation (@StellarOrg) has published a structured, three-stage roadmap to make its network resistant to quantum computing attacks, setting a firm target of 2027 for a protocol-level upgrade that covers every account on the network.

What the plan covers

The Stellar Development Foundation unveiled a sweeping three-stage roadmap to protect its blockchain network from the coming threat of quantum computing. The plan, called the Quantum Preparedness Plan (QPP), is designed around a structural advantage Stellar holds over most other networks. On Stellar, account identity is separated from signing keys. The G... address is a stable identifier, and the keys that authorise transactions can be rotated through the existing set_options operation without changing the address, meaning a Stellar account does not need to migrate to a new account to become quantum-safe.

The rollout proceeds in three stages. In 2026, post-quantum signature verification will be added to Stellar's smart contract layer, allowing enterprise wallets to begin migrating immediately. This first stage adds support for ML-DSA-44 and ML-DSA-65, the enterprise-grade NIST signature standards. Stage two, scheduled for 2027, will introduce a protocol-level upgrade that allows every account to attach a quantum-safe signer while keeping the same account address and balance.

The third stage is deprecation, with readiness work complete in 2027, but the activation point, the ledger at which the current Ed25519 signing scheme is no longer accepted, will be determined by quantum computing progress and ecosystem readiness. Activation will require community input, as it is likely to come with some disruption: Stellar has a large population of dormant accounts whose holders are unreachable.

Why the timeline is tightening

The foundation (@BuildOnStellar) points to a rapidly shifting threat landscape as the reason for acting now. In early 2026, INRIA researchers showed that breaking 256-bit elliptic curves, the family Stellar's Ed25519 belongs to, requires only 1,193 logical qubits, a 44% reduction from prior estimates and fewer than what is needed to break RSA-3072. Separately, new quantum error correction architectures have reduced the physical qubit overhead for cryptographic attacks by an order of magnitude, and NIST guidance, which previously placed the danger zone at 2030 and beyond, has been updated to 2029 or earlier.

Google has also accelerated its timeline for migrating its products to quantum-resistant encryption to 2029, the latest sign that technology leaders are concerned they have not been aggressive enough in planning for a post-quantum future. Stellar's plan aligns its own 2027 readiness milestone to sit well ahead of that broader industry deadline.

Bitcoin developers are considering multiple proposals to mitigate the quantum threat, while Ethereum developers have formed a post-quantum team to devise a path forward. The specificity of Stellar's timeline, with concrete stages mapped to 2026 and 2027, sets it apart from networks offering vaguer commitments.

Sources:
Stellar Development Foundation: Introducing the Quantum Preparedness Plan
Decrypt: A Quantum Clock Is Ticking for Bitcoin and Crypto
CyberScoop: Google moves post-quantum encryption timeline up to 2029