BNB Chain has released a comprehensive research report examining the feasibility of migrating BNB Smart Chain (BSC) to post-quantum cryptography. The study, published on May 14, 2026, evaluates the implementation and performance implications of replacing traditional cryptographic systems like ECDSA and BLS with quantum-resistant alternatives, specifically ML-DSA-44 transaction signatures and pqSTARK aggregation for validator consensus.
The report stresses that quantum computing is not yet a real-world threat to blockchain encryption, but it takes a forward-looking approach to infrastructure resilience. Key areas assessed included post-quantum transaction signature schemes, validator signature aggregation, transaction verification flows, public key storage, and cross-region network performance under increased data loads.
Key findings show post-quantum readiness is technically achievable today but comes with significant trade-offs. In testing, transaction size ballooned from 110 bytes to approximately 2.5 KB, while block size surged from around 110 KB to nearly 2 MB. Native transfer transactions per second (TPS) dropped from 4,973 to 2,997. The primary bottleneck was not signature verification speed but the larger transaction and block sizes, which created network propagation overhead across regions. However, pqSTARK aggregation proved highly efficient, compressing validator signatures at roughly 43:1, keeping consensus-layer overhead manageable.
Researchers selected ML-DSA-44 over larger variants for its balance of security and practicality in high-throughput environments. The report also noted that areas like P2P handshakes and KZG commitments were outside the current scope and would require broader ecosystem coordination. BNB Chain emphasized that the work is purely research and evaluation, not a response to any immediate security threat. The full report is publicly available.
