The XRP Ledger (XRPL) Foundation has unveiled a security roadmap designed to shield user accounts from future quantum computing threats without imposing additional transaction fees on users. Updated on November 4, the proposal outlines a plan allowing account owners to integrate a quantum-resistant signing key and deactivate their legacy credentials, paving the way for a full network transition by 2028.
The upgrade addresses a fundamental vulnerability in existing blockchain architecture. Every time an account executes a transaction, it exposes its public key on-chain. Advanced quantum computers could theoretically exploit this exposed key to reverse-engineer the underlying secret key and compromise the wallet. Under the Foundation’s new design, users can transition to a high-security signature scheme and safely disable their old keys, effectively closing potential attack vectors for high-value and exchange wallets alike.
To achieve post-quantum resistance, the ledger will adopt ML-DSA-44, a cryptographic signature scheme approved by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2024. While these post-quantum signatures require significantly more data, increasing protected transaction storage from a baseline of 1,704 bytes to 5,331 bytes, the XRPL Foundation confirmed that standard base fees will remain unchanged for users. Because transaction fees on the network are burned rather than paid to node operators, the infrastructure costs associated with this extra data storage will be absorbed by network operators.
Development remains ongoing as engineers work to resolve key generation discrepancies across programming libraries and benchmark validator network performance under the new signature model. The Foundation’s migration study is slated for the first half of 2027, with formal development and security auditing running into 2028. The quantum amendment has been allocated up to $255,000 for reviews, forming part of a broader $5 million to $6 million development budget across 24 planned protocol amendments.
