Blockchain Quantum Readiness Index / Hedera
L1 · Hedera
Hedera
A governing council of up to 39 organizations runs the network and holds elliptic-curve threshold keys; consensus signatures are elliptic-curve too, and there is no official bridge. A post-quantum roadmap exists (post-quantum user keys targeted for 2027, hybrid event signing), but none of it is live on mainnet yet.
Last reviewed 2026-10-19
Is Hedera quantum safe?
Not yet. Hedera is at Stage 1 (Committed) in LimeChain's Blockchain Quantum Readiness Index, with a progress score of 16/100. There is an official plan for post-quantum accounts, but no code in the core software yet. Still exposed or unproven: admin & upgrade keys.
What Hedera needs for Stage 2: Code merged
- Stage 2 needs PQ user accounts merged into the core code (U is: planned)
Caps and adjustments
- cap 40: users cannot hold and spend funds under a production PQ mechanism on mainnet
- cap 60: consensus PQ not even on testnet
Rosette slices
| Slice | State | Points | Weight | Reason & evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U User keys | Planned At rest: Hidden until first spend Ordinary accounts store their key in public state (the mirror node returns e.g. `"key":{"_type":"ED25519",...}` for 0.0.1001), so a normal account is exposed from creation; CryptoUpdate rotation only publishes the new key. Best option: a hollow account. Sending HBAR/tokens to an EVM address (Keccak-256 of an ECDSA secp256k1 key) auto-creates a 'no key' account that can hold funds until the matching ECDSA key signs as fee payer, which completes the account and stores the key. |
2/10 | 25 | A PQ user key type is targeted for 2027; not usable on mainnet today. Sources 1 |
| C Consensus | Planned | 2/10 | 20 | The roadmap includes hybrid Ed25519+FN-DSA event signing. Consensus still uses ECC event signatures (ECDSA secp256k1 or Ed25519 only). Sources 1 |
| P Proof system | Not applicable | — | — | L1 with no validity or fraud proof system. no evidence |
| B Bridges & messaging | Not applicable | — | — | No canonical bridge: the main bridge HashPort was permanently decommissioned on 2026-05-31; the official docs list only third-party integrations (Chainlink CCIP, LayerZero, USDT0). |
| A Admin & upgrade keys | Exposed | 0/10 | 15 | The Council governs the network and operates all permissioned consensus nodes. The treasury (0.0.2), address-book admin (0.0.55) and freeze admin (0.0.58, which starts every network upgrade) sit behind a 17-of-32 threshold key whose members are 1-of-2 or 1-of-3 Ed25519 keys (measured on-chain 2026-10-19 via the mirror node REST API), with no timelock or PQ override documented. |
| M Migration & recovery | Planned | 2/10 | 15 | Hedera explicitly directs wallets and SDKs to prepare for PQ key rotation; nothing ratified on mainnet. Sources 1 |
Stage gates
| Requirement | Status | Details & evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Current audit of the deployed PQ signing code (Stage 5) | Not met | not claimed |
| Admin timelock of at least 30 days with a PQ override (Stage 6, alternative to PQ admin keys) | Not met | not claimed |
| Ratified migration plan with an activation date (Stage 6) | Not met | not claimed |
| New accounts PQ or hybrid by default (Stage 6) | Not met | not claimed |
| ECC sunset enforced (Stage 7) | Not met | not claimed |
PQ adoption published, not scored
There are no PQ accounts on mainnet yet. Having PQ accounts does not mean people move to them. This tracks the share of value and accounts that actually moved, over time.
Measured exposure
No on-chain probe run yet. Bitcoin, Solana, Cosmos and Substrate probes are planned.
Evidence and sources (11)
Every non-zero rating above cites at least one of these public sources.
- hedera.com/blog/post-quantum-cryptography-and-blockchain/
- docs.hedera.com/learn/core-concepts/accounts/auto-account-cre…
- docs.hedera.com/learn/core-concepts/accounts/account-properties
- mainnet-public.mirrornode.hedera.com/api/v1/accounts/0.0.1001
- hashport.network/
- docs.hedera.com/evm/integrations/cross-chain.md
- mainnet-public.mirrornode.hedera.com/api/v1/accounts/0.0.2
- mainnet-public.mirrornode.hedera.com/api/v1/accounts/0.0.55
- docs.hedera.com/operators/consensus-node/requirements/index.md
- docs.hedera.com/support/faq/governance.md
- raw.githubusercontent.com/hiero-ledger/hiero-consensus-node/m…
Source: chains/hedera.json. Reproduce: python3 score.py chains/hedera.json
Building on Hedera?
LimeChain helps teams plan their post-quantum migration: what is exposed, what to change first, and the engineering to get there.
Talk to usOpen, repeatable scoring. Non-zero ratings need public evidence; missing evidence means unknown. Methodology v0.4 · mechanism registry 2026-10-13.