Williams: Blockchains Will Get Ample Warning Dominic Williams, founder and chief scientist of Dfinity and the Internet Computer Protocol ($ICP), is pushing back on growing fears that quantum
Dominic Williams, founder and chief scientist of Dfinity and the Internet Computer Protocol ($ICP), is pushing back on growing fears that quantum computing poses a near-term threat to blockchain security. In his view, the danger is real but not imminent, and the industry has time to act.
Williams argued that cryptographically relevant quantum computers, capable of breaking the encryption that underpins today's blockchains, will not arrive without warning. Researchers would report major breakthroughs well before bad actors could exploit them, he said, and that window would give blockchain developers enough time to transition to quantum-safe cryptography standards.
The comments come amid rising concern across the crypto industry. The research team behind NEAR Protocol warned that future quantum attacks could create disputes over who truly owns stolen crypto, with Near One CTO Anton Astafiev saying networks may struggle to tell whether a transaction came from the real owner or an attacker. The warning prompted NEAR to move quickly on a technical response.
In May 2026, NEAR announced it would add post-quantum cryptography to protect accounts from future quantum computing attacks, targeting a testnet launch by the end of Q2. Quantum-safe signing has since gone live on NEAR mainnet, making NEAR one of the first blockchains with a NIST-approved post-quantum signature scheme in production.
The scheme is called ML-DSA, which stands for Module-Lattice-Based Digital Signature Algorithm. It is also identified as FIPS-204, a standard the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology finalised in August 2024. Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum addresses, NEAR accounts use human-readable names and rotatable access keys, separating accounts from one permanent cryptographic keypair and allowing users to change signing methods without moving to a new address.
NEAR is not alone in taking precautions. Solana validator clients Anza and Firedancer have added test versions of Falcon, a post-quantum signature tool, with early work aimed at protecting validators without slowing network performance. The Ethereum Foundation is also actively developing quantum solutions, aiming for protocol-level quantum security by 2029.
Williams does not dismiss the long-term challenge. His position is that the timeline for a genuine quantum threat gives the industry room to prepare in an orderly way, rather than react in a panic. Most analysts agree that blockchains will eventually require upgrades to post-quantum cryptography. The question is when, and whether projects will move fast enough.
The debate has sharpened in recent months. A March 2026 Google Quantum AI paper found that breaking 256-bit elliptic-curve cryptography, the standard behind Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets, could take roughly 20 times fewer resources than previously estimated. D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz has also warned that sufficiently advanced quantum machines will one day outperform hardware used for mining. AI is accelerating quantum research in a self-reinforcing loop, compressing the timeline for crypto networks to migrate away from current encryption standards, while the so-called harvest now, decrypt later strategy is already considered an active threat.
Sources:crypto.news: Near One warns quantum attacks could create crypto ownership crisisCrypto Times: NEAR Plans Post-Quantum Safe Signing for Q2 2026 TestnetU.Today: CEO of Quantum Giant Issues Bitcoin Warning
