Read this article on bsc.news Algorand is preparing for quantum threats by moving its security to Falcon, a post-quantum signature scheme selected by the US National Institute of Standards an
Algorand is preparing for quantum threats by moving its security to Falcon, a post-quantum signature scheme selected by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It has used Falcon to sign State Proofs since 2022.
Since August 2026, users can hold native Falcon-1024 accounts on mainnet, and since late October they can switch existing accounts to Falcon without changing their address.
The work is not finished. Parts of Algorand’s consensus still rely on classical cryptography, and the Algorand Foundation is targeting broad quantum resilience across the protocol by the end of 2027.
Most blockchains prove who owns what with elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC). Algorand’s standard accounts use Ed25519, a type of ECC signature. A powerful enough quantum computer could, in theory, work out a private key from its public key and sign transactions as the owner.
No one knows when such a machine will exist. In an October 27 blog post, Algorand Chief Product Officer Will Beaumont said some estimates put it as early as 2029. He argued the real deadline is that date minus the time a migration takes, adding that “for most institutions, lead time is measured in years.”
Governments are setting dates too. The US National Security Agency requires new national security systems to use quantum-resistant algorithms from January 1, 2027.
Algorand has added post-quantum features in four steps since 2022.
State Proofs are compact certificates of the ledger’s state. Algorand signs them with Falcon-1024 every 256 rounds, which protects the chain’s history. Other networks can use them to check Algorand’s state in cross-chain setups.
On November 3, 2025, the foundation sent the first Falcon-signed transaction on Algorand mainnet. It used a LogicSig, a small program the Algorand Virtual Machine (AVM) runs to approve transactions for an account, plus a FALCON_VERIFY opcode. It worked, but the ledger and wallets did not support these accounts natively.
The v5.0.0 upgrade reached its 90% approval threshold on August 15, 2026. Algorand counts quantum-resilient accounts as live from August 20. Falcon-1024 accounts no longer need a LogicSig, and SDKs, AlgoKit and Pera Wallet support them.
Falcon brings a size cost. A Falcon-1024 public key is 1,793 bytes and a signature is about 1,280 bytes, against 32 and 64 bytes for Ed25519. Algorand keeps addresses at 32 bytes by hashing the key. Because Falcon signatures take up more block space, v5.0.0 charges these transactions a higher, usage-based fee.
In late October, Algorand confirmed that existing accounts can rekey to Falcon-1024 signing. Rekeying assigns an account’s signing authority to a new key, so users keep their address, history and assets without moving funds.
Early use has grown fast:
The transaction counts cover account signatures only. They do not mean every layer of the network is protected.
The roadmap the foundation published on June 18, 2026 lists these remaining steps.
Cryptographic agility means the protocol can support several signature schemes at once and add new ones without a redesign. Algorand plans hybrid accounts that combine an ECC key with a Falcon key, so funds stay protected if either scheme is later found to be weak.
The foundation aims to publish its VRF research by early 2027 and move consensus toward hybrid Ed25519 and Falcon signatures. Its goal is broad quantum resilience by the end of 2027.
On November 6, the foundation said post-quantum security is now its next priority. It plans to offer its Falcon tools to custodians, wallets, token issuers and other networks.
The same update paused Project King Safety, a plan that had included lifting the ALGO supply cap and capturing maximal extractable value (MEV). Staking rewards stay in place through January 2028, but the xGov grants program pauses from December 6.
The foundation also said usage-based fees, including fees for Falcon-1024 transactions, may be introduced or adjusted, which could change Algorand’s tokenomics.
Beaumont’s October post gave institutions a practical starting plan:
Algorand signs its ledger history with Falcon, supports native Falcon-1024 accounts and lets existing accounts switch to Falcon by rekeying. It had processed more than 2.7 million post-quantum transactions by mid-October. Its consensus layer still runs on classical cryptography, so the work is not complete. The foundation has made post-quantum security its top priority, with the remaining steps set for the end of 2026 and 2027.
