XRP Ledger plans quantum-resistant accounts by 2028, with no rise in base fees

What is proposed

The XRP Ledger Foundation and Ripple have set out a plan to add quantum-resistant accounts to XRP Ledger by 2028. The proposal is described in technical discussion XLS #295 and in the network's 2027 development roadmap, according to Territorio Bitcoin.

The plan adopts ML-DSA-44, a digital signature scheme standardized by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in August 2024 under FIPS 204. ML-DSA-44 was previously known as CRYSTALS-Dilithium2 and is built on lattice-based cryptography.

XRP Ledger would gain a new key type called dilithium, which would work alongside existing key types. The change covers user accounts and also validator signatures, manifests, consensus proposals and validator list publishers.

Why the network is preparing

Blockchains such as Bitcoin and XRP Ledger secure funds with elliptic-curve cryptography, including secp256k1 and Ed25519. These schemes resist classical computers, but a sufficiently large quantum computer running Shor's algorithm could derive a private key from a public key exposed on-chain.

On XRP Ledger, a public key is exposed in the ledger whenever an account signs and sends a transaction. The foundation cites two risks: a future quantum breakthrough and "harvest-now, decrypt-later", where attackers collect public keys today to attack funds once quantum technology matures.

What users would do

Self-custody users would not need to move XRP to new addresses or create new wallets. Existing ledger rules allow a backup regular key on the same public address; after the change, the owner would add the ML-DSA-44 key and disable the old master key.

For funds held on exchanges or in exchange-traded funds, the custodians would handle the key upgrade.

The amendment would not raise the base transaction fee, which stays at 10 drops (0.00001 XRP). Extra storage costs would fall on node operators.

Budget and schedule

The plan estimates 640 hours of software development for the Quantum amendment and another 400 hours of code review by Ripple's team. Direct costs are budgeted at $215,000 to $255,000.

That budget includes about $100,000 for an independent external security audit, $40,000 to $80,000 for Ripple's technical review at $100 to $200 per hour, $50,000 for a reference implementation and $25,000 to adapt hardware wallets such as Ledger and third-party wallets.

Prototype testing on AlphaNet and Devnet is scheduled for the first half of 2027, including a migration study on validator performance and key-derivation inconsistencies. Audits and engineering are due to conclude in late 2027 or 2028, after which the Quantum amendment would go to a validator vote requiring more than 80% support for two weeks.

Compliance angle

The foundation gives the amendment a market-fit score of 7 out of 12, acknowledging that cryptographic security does not directly create new demand or price gains for XRP.

NIST has set a phase-out of vulnerable public-key cryptography from 2030, with a ban in regulatory settings by 2035. Becoming one of the first layer-1 networks with native post-quantum accounts would give Ripple and XRP Ledger a compliance argument, the report says.