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

ME News message. On April 4 (UTC+8), as Bitcoin developers urgently look for quantum-safe solutions, Ethereum is preparing for a “Q-Day,” and Solana is trying to get ahead of potential threats. Currently, Project Eleven is collaborating with the Solana Foundation to deploy quantum-safe signatures (Post-Quantum Signatures) on a test network, simulating how the network would run after replacing the existing cryptographic algorithms. Preliminary 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 approximately 90%, directly impacting Solana’s design advantage, which is known for high throughput and low latency. In addition, Solana’s public-key design leaves the entire network 100% exposed to quantum attack risk, allowing hackers to choose any wallet and attempt to recover private keys. The risk is higher than what Bitcoin faces, because it has technical and community coordination challenges. Solana is leading the industry in quantum-safe experiments and already has a quantum-safe testnet that can actually run. Project Eleven CEO Alex Pruden said, “If the industry waits until quantum threats truly arrive, and then starts fixing, it may take four years.” (Source: ODAILY)