Sonic releases quantum-resistant roadmap: upgrade can be completed simply by replacing the signature algorithm

Odaily Planet Daily reports that Sonic details its technical approach toward the “post-quantum era,” pointing out that most current PoS public blockchains rely on elliptic curve signatures (such as ECDSA, Ed25519), which face the risk of being cracked once quantum computing (like Shor’s algorithm) matures.

Sonic states that the industry is exploring quantum-resistant cryptography solutions (such as hash-based XMSS, SPHINCS+, and lattice-based Dilithium, Falcon), but mainstream consensus mechanisms generally depend on BLS aggregate signatures and threshold signatures. Transitioning to a quantum-resistant system will face challenges related to performance, bandwidth, and architectural restructuring.

In contrast, Sonic’s SonicCS consensus protocol does not rely on aggregate signatures or global randomness, but only uses single-node signatures and hash functions to build a DAG structure. Therefore, when switching to quantum-resistant cryptography, only the signature algorithm needs to be replaced to complete the upgrade, without adjusting the consensus logic or network architecture.

Sonic emphasizes that this design will significantly reduce the complexity of future migration to quantum-safe systems, enabling the network to better adapt to the threat of quantum computing.