The blockchain industry is witnessing a sharpened focus on quantum-resistant infrastructure, as two separate initiatives this week underscored the urgency of preparing for future cryptographic threats. Asentum unveiled its public testnet, a post-quantum Layer-1 blockchain built from scratch, while AmericanFortress announced an $8 million seed round and a patent filing for quantum-resistant transaction signing.
Asentum’s Quantum-Safe Layer-1 Goes Live on Testnet
Asentum has launched its testnet, introducing a Layer-1 network that integrates post-quantum cryptography at every protocol layer. Rather than retrofitting security, the blockchain uses ML-DSA-65 (Dilithium3) digital signatures for all transactions and consensus messages, eliminating legacy cryptographic exposure entirely. The network also features native JavaScript smart contracts inside a hardened sandbox (SES), which the team says prevents common vulnerabilities like reentrancy by design. Validators—called Asentum Operators—can run on consumer-grade hardware, including Raspberry Pi devices, and the testnet already achieves 2-second finality via a Tendermint-style BFT consensus with a rotating committee structure.
The native token, $ASE, fuels the ecosystem through transaction fees, staking, and governance. It has a fixed supply of 1 billion units, and an EIP-1559-style fee-burning mechanism introduces deflationary pressure. A public presale for 16% of the supply is underway, with the token currently issued as an ERC-20 on Ethereum and convertible 1:1 to the native asset at mainnet. Asentum also operates a live on-chain governance system where token holders can vote on protocol changes, while foundational parameters—such as the maximum supply and post-quantum requirements—are permanently fixed.
AmericanFortress Closes $8M Seed Round and Files Quantum-Resistant Patent
In parallel, AmericanFortress raised $8 million in seed funding co-led by SAVA Digital Asset Fund, Moon Pursuit Capital, and 0G Labs. The company, which is building a universal privacy layer for blockchain, also filed a patent for a quantum-resistant public key derivation scheme compatible with quantum-proof signatures. The technology aims to address the growing recognition that elliptic curve cryptography (ECC)—used by Bitcoin, Ethereum, and most networks—could be broken by sufficiently advanced quantum computers running Shor’s algorithm.
The funding will accelerate the deployment of AmericanFortress’s privacy infrastructure and support the planned $AF token generation event in Q2 2026. The project combines human-readable names (Send-to-Name™), stealth address privacy, zero-knowledge balance confidentiality, built-in compliance, and post-quantum security into a single system designed to work across supported chains. 0G Labs, the first chain to bring the technology to production, emphasized that post-quantum security is a present necessity for AI-native economies.
