Post-Quantum Cryptography
Ambuj Kumar Agarwal, Manpreet Kaur, Alok Misra +1 more
The blockchain technology has become a foundation of decentralized digital infrastructures, allowing secure, transparent, and tamper-resistant transactions in the finance and governance systems as well as supply chains ecosystems. But, existing blockchain systems are critically dependent on classical cryptography including RSA, ECDSA and hash-based primitives, which are becoming more susceptible to new entrant quantum computing. The quantum algorithm, especially Shor and Grover ones are a real challenge to the digital signatures, key exchange systems, and consensus integrity, which makes the sustainability of blockchain systems a serious concern in the long term.The practical approach of achieving quantum-resilient security without the use of quantum hardware-specific devices has seen considerable popularity in the form of Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC). Although the literature is mostly concentrated on algorithm design, there is little work on the topic of architectural implementation of PQC in the framework of decentralized blockchain solutions. This chapter offers a systematic discussion on quantum threats, review of the most prominent families of PQC algorithms and suggests suitable deployment-related options to deploy quantum-safe cryptographic tools to blockchain systems. The chapter identifies trade-offs between security, scalability, and performance through comparative assessment and real-world case analysis, including PQC testnets in development and enterprise blockchain projects. The most important contribution of this work is the ability to introduce the gap between theory of cryptographic developments and the aspects of practical blockchain implementation challenges, providing an overall framework of the transition towards quantum-resilient distributed systems. The results would assist the researchers, practitioners and policy makers, to develop a future-proof blockchain architecture that would be in place to withstand digital trust in post-quantum age.
IGI Global eBooks•Apr 16, 2026•0 citations