Quantus, a proof-of-work blockchain designed around quantum-resistant security, has launched its mainnet, moving from testnet to a live network open to miners from day one, according to information shared with Finbold on September 10, 2026.
The chain ships with post-quantum cryptography already integrated, a design choice the team frames as a response to a threat that most of the industry has yet to address.
The concern is straightforward: the elliptic-curve cryptography that secures the majority of existing blockchains will become breakable once quantum computers reach sufficient scale. When that happens, every network relying on it will need to migrate, and users will need to move assets to new addresses.
Quantus sidesteps that future migration by building on ML-DSA, the post-quantum digital signature standard finalized by NIST in 2024, from the outset. The chain uses both ML-DSA-65 and ML-DSA-87 to verify transaction signatures and guard against quantum-enabled tampering.
“We have known for over 30 years that if anyone builds a sufficiently large quantum computer, then elliptic curves will fail,” says Christopher Smith, co-founder and CEO of Quantus. “AI accelerating quantum may be the single greatest single threat to cybersecurity in history. Trillions of dollars worth of assets are currently secured by elliptic curve cryptography.”
“We call upon the industry leaders to be proactive in migrating to post-quantum cryptography, as no one can predict the future in such volatile times and in this case, being too early is much better than being even a little too late,” Smith added.
In a separate interview with Fortune, Smith framed the scale of the challenge:
“The great quantum migration is going to require the entire digital asset industry to participate.”
Privacy layer, zero-knowledge aggregation, and proof-of-work underpin the architecture
The network runs two additional layers on top of the base chain: Wormhole, which keeps transactions private, and an aggregation layer that increases throughput. The chain targets a 12-second block time and reached 430 transactions per second during testing.
One known trade-off of post-quantum cryptography is transaction size. Quantus ML-DSA transactions weigh in at around 7 KB compared to roughly 100 bytes for a Bitcoin (BTC) transaction, a roughly 70x difference. The network addresses this through native transaction aggregation, posting succinct proofs onchain and becoming more efficient as volume increases.
The network is secured by proof-of-work and distributes its native coin, QTC, through open mining with no built-in advantage for Quantus Labs. The coin supply is capped at 21 million. Prior to launch, the team brought in four blockchain security firms (Neodyme, Eiger, Hashcloak, and V12) to review the technology, and ran a public audit competition through Immunefi in August.
“We are in unprecedented times with AI. Over the last several months, we have witnessed a firehose of cybersecurity incidents across the blockchain ecosystem, largely fueled by blackhat hackers amplifying their abilities with AI,” the Quantus CEO explained.
Quantus also maintains migration.fail, a public tracker showing how much of the crypto market remains exposed to quantum attacks. The figure currently stands at $2.7 trillion. Among major networks, NEAR and Algorand have post-quantum transaction security live, but neither has completed a full protocol-wide transition.
Further details on Quantus’s tokenomics are expected to follow as the project enters its next phase of mainnet development.
Featured image via Shutterstock.
