Starknet completes quantum-resistant signature transfer test, exploring wallet upgrade path without migration

Odaily News: Starknet announced the completion of a quantum-resistant signature transfer test. A wallet account using quantum-resistant signature mechanisms completed a real transfer on the Starknet mainnet, with transaction fees of approximately 6 US cents, and the transaction can be queried via a block explorer. This account is currently an experimental, unaudited version intended primarily for research and testing.

StarkWare stated that this transfer was made possible by Starknet's account model design. Unlike most blockchains that fix the signature algorithm at the protocol layer, each Starknet account is a smart contract that can autonomously define which signature schemes it accepts. As a result, users can upgrade their wallets from traditional elliptic curve signatures to quantum-resistant signatures without a hard fork, without migrating assets, and without changing their addresses.

StarkWare pointed out that most blockchains face quantum computing risks because both wallet signatures and the underlying verification systems rely on elliptic curve cryptography. Once large-scale quantum computers emerge, running Shor's algorithm could break the associated cryptographic systems. Currently, the Starknet ecosystem already supports a quantum-resistant signature scheme based on Falcon-512, which is part of the NIST post-quantum cryptography standardization framework. The relevant implementation has been advanced by ecosystem teams and organizations such as OpenZeppelin.