Developers at payments-focused blockchain firm Ripple say they are swiftly preparing the $XRP Ledger for a future in which the cryptography that protects wallets and transactions may no longer be sufficient.
“The goal is not to wait until quantum computing becomes an immediate threat,” Ayo Akinyele, senior director of engineering at Ripple, told CoinDesk. “It is to make sure critical financial infrastructure can evolve well before that point without disrupting the systems, assets and users that depend on it.”
It is theorized a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could eventually break some of the mathematical protections used by blockchains and banks today. That would allow an attacker, in some cases, to work backwards from publicly available information and calculate the private keys used to control assets.
Researchers often call the point at which such machines become practical “Q-Day.”
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But Ripple is treating the problem as a long-term infrastructure project rather than a last-minute software patch.
“The financial system was not built with quantum computing in mind,” Akinyele said. “As quantum capabilities advance, institutions will need to rethink how they secure transactions, identities, assets and sensitive data.”
Four-stage plan
Ripple has laid out a four-stage plan for the $XRP Ledger covering the years before and after any serious quantum threat emerges. It starts with assessing which parts of the network would be exposed, then testing alternative forms of cryptography against the workload the blockchain handles today.
Later stages would run today’s security alongside quantum-resistant alternatives before moving the broader network over.
The plan also includes an emergency route if quantum computing advances faster than expected. In that case, Ripple says the network would need a way to respond before attackers could exploit the older cryptography.
The $XRP Ledger already allows users to replace the keys controlling an account without changing the account itself, a feature Ripple says could make a future migration easier. The network’s independent validators would still have to coordinate any wider change to the rules governing transactions.
“That upgrade will go well beyond swapping out one cryptographic algorithm for another,” Akinyele said. “It will require more agile infrastructure, stronger key management, clearer upgrade paths and systems that can evolve without disrupting the financial activity they support.”