XRP Ledger advances quantum-resistant key upgrade for wallet security

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XRP Ledger quantum-resistant key upgrade

Highlights

XRP Ledger's proposed upgrade enables wallets to adopt NIST-approved ML-DSA-44 quantum-resistant keys, with migration study slated for H1 2027.
Quantum-resistant key adoption massively increases per-payment data storage from 1,704 bytes to 5,331 bytes, shifting storage costs to network operators while leaving base fees unchanged.
Ripple's roadmap earmarks $215,000 to $255,000 for this amendment's review and auditing, with full quantum transition budgeted at $5 million to $6 million by 2028.

Quantum upgrade design and rollout plan

As reported by CoinDesk, a proposed XRP Ledger upgrade would allow account owners to attach a quantum-resistant key to their wallets and switch off the original key after migration. The mechanism is designed to reduce the risk that future quantum computers could derive private keys from public keys that become visible onchain when users sign transactions.

The risk affects any account that has previously sent a payment, including exchange wallets, because those transactions expose the public key used for verification. Under the Foundation's design, users would close that attack route by disabling the legacy key once the new key is active.

The new cryptographic method uses ML-DSA-44, a signature scheme approved by U.S. standards body NIST in 2024 for quantum-resistant protection. The Foundation includes the work in its updated Nov. 4 protocol roadmap, with a migration study scheduled for the first half of 2027 and development and auditing expected later in 2027 or in 2028.

Cost burden shifts to network operators

The proposal keeps base transaction fees unchanged even though the larger key format materially increases data requirements. The key and signature together take 3,732 bytes, versus 105 bytes for a regular payment, while estimated storage per protected payment rises to 5,331 bytes from a 1,704-byte baseline after including history and database overhead.

Because XRP Ledger fees are destroyed rather than paid to operators, the additional storage burden falls on the entities running the network. The Foundation says technical work is still incomplete, including fixes for a mismatch that can cause the Python prototype and the server and JavaScript implementations to generate different keys from the same seed.

Testing is also unfinished for validator performance under the new signatures. The roadmap allocates $215,000 to $255,000 for review and auditing of the amendment, plus 640 development hours, while the budget for all 24 amendments runs from about $5 million to nearly $6 million as Ripple targets a full quantum transition by 2028.

Earlier, we reported that the Bank of England is collaborating with banks on bare metal recovery systems to keep critical services running.

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