Illia Polosukhin: NEAR built quantum-ready since 2018, now ships one-click post-quantum keys

NEAR Intents as a "market of markets"

Polosukhin describes NEAR Intents as moving beyond chain abstraction into a universal aggregator for trading "anything anywhere" by finding the best counterparty. He says the system has already expanded past crypto venues to include stocks, naming Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange as venues now aggregated through intents, with tokenized assets able to be brought directly to a user's wallet.

He frames the long-term vision as natural-language intents that subcontract tasks to sub-agents, using the example of someone requesting "build me a new skyscraper in New York" that gets broken into sourcing land and materials. He also rejects what he calls the "zero-sum" mindset among layer ones, arguing NEAR instead positions itself as "a universal liquidity layer" that benefits from cooperating with other blockchains and apps.

"It's effectively this universal aggregator of anyone wanting to trade anything anywhere and being able to do it through kind of like finding the best counterparty to do it." — Illia Polosukhin

The host adds that NEAR Intents and near.com are already being used to access assets like Quantus, which he says has no centralized exchange listing but trades through NEAR Intents and SafeTrade, and he raises getting Aave onto near.com as a discussed next step for borrowing against positions without selling.

Quantum readiness and post-quantum keys

Polosukhin says NEAR's account model was built in 2018 anticipating that quantum computers would eventually force cryptography changes, allowing users to rotate keys, add keys, and use different cryptographic curves. He says adding a new cryptographic curve takes roughly 200 lines of code, and that NEAR shipped its first post-quantum curve, ML-DSA (Dilithium), to mainnet around July after a new algorithm for recovering private keys from public keys began circulating.

He says any NEAR user can now update their account to post-quantum keys without moving assets, withdrawing funds, or paying taxes, calling it "literally one button" on Meteor Wallet. He contrasts this with needing "bunker mode," which he says requires deriving new keys and managing the transition with extra sophistication.

The host references a post by Justin Drake warning the industry to prepare for "bunker mode" against quantum threats, asking why NEAR appears to diverge from a market broadly pricing in quantum vulnerability. Polosukhin says NEAR accounts can hold assets across Ethereum, Bitcoin and other chains with teams working on cryptography, smart contracts, and proactive detection via a system called Shield, though he does not give a specific timeline for securing other chains' assets.