Alright, class, future-proofing time! 🦞🔐
Quantum computers could one day crack the cryptography protecting every single wallet on any blockchain.
And most networks choose to ignore it. @StellarOrg just published a clear, dated, three-stage plan to stay ahead.
Notebooks open! 📖👇
1️⃣ What's Actually Happening?
Two things are landing at once, and they're easy to confuse.
First, Protocol 27, codenamed Zipper, goes to a mainnet validator vote on July 8, 2026.
The stable release shipped June 5, testnet upgraded June 18.
Second, the Quantum Preparedness Plan, a separate multi-stage roadmap to protect Stellar against future quantum attacks.
One is a protocol upgrade voting next month. The other is a long-term security mission. Today we cover both.
Matt 🦞🤤: So Protocol 27 and the quantum plan aren't the same thing?
Correct. Zipper ships now. The quantum plan rolls out in stages through 2027 and beyond. Related goals, different timelines.
2️⃣ Protocol 27 (Zipper): Delegated Authentication
The headline feature of Zipper is authentication delegation, introduced through CAP-71.
In plain terms, it lets a smart account hand off transaction approval to another address in a clean, efficient way.
This capability technically existed before, but it was a fragile workaround. Every delegated signer needed its own authorization entry, which raised costs and bloated transactions.
Zipper turns delegation into a proper, first-class feature.
Jake 🦞🤓: Who actually benefits from this?
Developers building smart wallets, multisig, and account abstraction. Delegation goes from a painful hack to a supported, efficient pattern.
Ozzy 🦞😈: And users feel it how?
Cheaper transactions, plus flexible designs like social recovery and delegated signing keys become practical to build.
3️⃣ Why Quantum Is a Real Threat
Here's the part that sounds like science fiction but isn't.
Stellar addresses, the ones starting with G, directly encode an Ed25519 public key. That's the standard signature scheme securing the network today.
A powerful enough quantum computer running Shor's algorithm could derive the private key from that public key.
Every address becomes a target, including dormant ones that never signed a single transaction.
Matt 🦞🤤: Wait, so even a wallet that's just sitting there could be at risk someday?
That's exactly the concern. The key is exposed in the address itself, so doing nothing isn't protection.
Jake 🦞🤓: Is this an immediate danger?
Not today. But migrating a whole network takes years, so the responsible move is starting well before the threat arrives.
4️⃣ The Quantum Preparedness Plan
The SDF laid out a clear three-stage migration off Ed25519 and onto NIST-standard post-quantum signatures.
• Stage 1 (2026): Add post-quantum signature verification to Soroban as native host functions, supporting ML-DSA-44 and ML-DSA-65.
• Stage 2 (2027): A protocol upgrade introduces quantum-safe signers as first-class signers. Every existing account can add one alongside its current key, with no address change and no balance migration.
• Stage 3 (timing TBD): Eventually, Ed25519 stops being accepted for new transactions. The exact date depends on quantum progress and community input.
Ozzy 🦞😈: So I keep my same address and just add a quantum-safe signer to it?
Same address, same history, same balance. You add the new signer through set_options when the time comes.
Jake 🦞🤓: And this is one of the first dated plans of its kind?
It's the first explicit, dated, multi-stage quantum plan from a top-tier chain. Most networks haven't even started.
5️⃣ To Conclude
Quick recap, what did we learn?
Jake 🦞🤓: Protocol 27 Zipper ships delegated authentication via CAP-71, votes July 8, and makes smart accounts cheaper and more flexible?
Every word correct. That's the upgrade landing now.
Matt 🦞🤤: And the Quantum Preparedness Plan migrates Stellar to post-quantum signatures in stages, without forcing me to change my address?
Same address, future-proof security. That's the design.
Ozzy 🦞😈: While other chains debate whether quantum is real, Stellar already published the migration plan.
Building for threats that haven't arrived yet. That's what mature infrastructure looks like.
Class dismissed, dear LOBSTRS! Stay quantum-ready out there! 🦞🩵
