Analysis: Solana Quantum Threat Experiment Reveals Trade-Off Between Security and Speed

ME News message, April 4 (UTC+8). As Bitcoin developers urgently search for quantum-safe solutions, Ethereum is preparing for “Q-Day,” and Solana is trying to respond to potential threats in advance, Project Eleven is collaborating with the Solana Foundation to deploy quantum-safe signatures (Post-Quantum Signatures) on the test network, simulating how the network would operate after replacing the existing cryptographic algorithms. Initial results show that quantum-safe signatures are about 20–40 times larger than the current signatures, causing the network’s transaction processing speed to drop by about 90%, directly undermining Solana’s design advantage known for high throughput and low latency. In addition, Solana’s public-key design leaves the entire network 100% exposed to quantum-attack risk, and hackers can choose any wallet to try to recover the private key. The risk is higher than the technical and community-coordination challenges that BitcoinEthereum is facing, along with those same challenges. In terms of quantum-safe experiments, Solana is ahead of the industry; it already has a quantum-safe testnet that can actually run. Project Eleven CEO Alex Pruden said, “If the industry waits until the quantum threat truly arrives and then starts fixing it, it may take four years.” (Source: ODAILY)