XRP Ledger Quantum-Proof Accounts: No Extra Fees Planned

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure XRP Ledger Foundation designs quantum-resistant accounts using ML-DSA-44. Users add new keys and disable old ones at no extra cost, targeting full transition by 2028. The XRP Ledger is preparing for a future in which quantum computers could break today’s elliptic-curve signatures. A design outlined in the XRP Ledger Foundation’s quantum study, part of its updated 2027 protocol roadmap, would let account owners add a quantum-resistant signing key and switch off the original one—without raising the base transaction fee for users. The threat is already present on-chain. Every time an account signs a payment, its public key becomes visible. That includes exchange wallets and any active user account. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm could later recover the private key from that exposed data. The proposed upgrade closes that path by allowing owners to retire the vulnerable key once a stronger one is in place. How the Quantum-Resistant Design Would Work Under the plan, accounts would support a new signing method based on ML-DSA-44, a lattice-based signature ...