Solana gets a quantum‑resistant vault

Solana developers have built a quantum‑resistant on‑chain vault to shield users from the potential threat posed by ultra‑fast computation.

The Solana Winternitz Vault relies on a hash‑based signature scheme that generates fresh keys with each transaction, explained Zeus Network’s chief scientist Dean Little.

Quantum resistance has been achieved internally.https://t.co/O2wgya5ZDZ

— Dean 利迪恩 (?,?) | sbpf/acc (@deanmlittle) January 3, 2025

The approach makes it harder to mount a coordinated quantum‑computer attack on any set of public keys that are revealed when signing transactions on the network.

Solana Winternitz Vault is available as an optional solution and is not applied across the entire blockchain.

When a transfer is initiated, the vault first generates a Winternitz key pair and computes a Keccak256 Merkle root of the public key.

It then creates a “split” vault consisting of two accounts. In the first, the user generates a signature with the amount to be transferred. After the transaction, unspent assets are returned to the second account.

With each operation, Winternitz Vault creates a new vault and closes the old one. This keeps the keys of the user’s main account with funds undisclosed.

In March 2024, Vitalik Buterin proposed a way to protect Ethereum from this technology.

In October, several experts said the quantum threat to cryptocurrencies is overstated.