Solana developers have created a quantum-resistant Vault on this blockchain to protect user funds from potential threats posed by quantum computers.
Cryptography researcher and Chief Scientist at Zeus Network Dean Little explained in a GitHub article on January 3 that this solution, called 'Solana Winternitz Vault', achieves quantum resistance by using a complex signature system based on hashes that generates new keys for each transaction, which should make it more difficult for quantum computers to perform coordinated attacks on any specific set of public keys.
This quantum-resistant feature of Solana is currently available as an optional add-on and has not yet become part of the overall network security upgrade. This means that Solana users need to choose to store their funds in Winternitz vaults instead of regular Solana wallets to ensure their assets are protected from potential quantum threats.
Quantum resistance has been achieved internally.https://t.co/O2wgya5ZDZ
— Dean Little ( , ) | sbpf/acc (@deanmlittle) January 3, 2025
How it Works
The Winternitz vault first generates a new set of Winternitz keys and calculates the Keccak256 Merkle root of the public key, then creates a 'split' vault composed of a Split Account and a Refund Account. During this process, the user signs a message with Winternitz that contains the amount of lamports (the smallest unit of Solana's native token) they wish to transfer.
When the transaction is completed, any remaining funds are transferred to the Refund Account, and the Vault closes.
Source
Source
