Quantum Disruption: An SOK of How Post-Quantum Attackers Reshape Blockchain Security and Performance

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how the adoption of post-quantum cryptography impacts blockchain security and performance, highlighting challenges in integration, system redesign needs, and potential risks to operational efficiency and trust structures.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive assessment of the implications, feasibility, and challenges of implementing post-quantum cryptography in blockchain systems, emphasizing the need for architectural redesigns.

Findings

Post-quantum primitives threaten existing blockchain security mechanisms.

Naive integration of post-quantum schemes can impair performance and security.

Careful redesign is essential for secure and efficient post-quantum blockchain systems.

Abstract

As quantum computing advances toward practical deployment, it threatens a wide range of classical cryptographic mechanisms, including digital signatures, key exchange protocols, public-key encryption, and certain hash-based constructions that underpin modern network infrastructures. These primitives form the security backbone of most blockchain platforms, raising serious concerns about the long-term viability of blockchain systems in a post-quantum world. Although migrating to post-quantum cryptography may appear straightforward, the substantially larger key sizes and higher computational costs of post-quantum primitives can introduce significant challenges and, in some cases, render such transitions impractical for blockchain environments. In this paper, we examine the implications of adopting post-quantum cryptography in blockchain systems across four key dimensions. We begin by identifying the cryptographic primitives within blockchain architectures that are most vulnerable to quantum attacks, particularly those used in consensus mechanisms, identity management, and transaction validation. We then survey proposed post-quantum adaptations across existing blockchain designs, analyzing their feasibility within decentralized and resource-constrained settings. Building on this analysis, we evaluate how replacing classical primitives with post-quantum alternatives affects system performance, protocol dynamics, and the incentive and trust structures that sustain blockchain ecosystems. Our study demonstrates that integrating post-quantum signature schemes into blockchain systems is not a simple drop-in replacement; instead, it requires careful architectural redesign, as naive substitutions risk undermining both security guarantees and operational efficiency.