TheRollupCo2 min read
Illia Polosukhin: NEAR built quantum-resistant accounts in 2018, now live with one-button upgrade
NEAR's co-founder says the network designed for quantum threats in 2018 can now shift any account to post-quantum cryptography without moving assets.
AI summary of “Illia Polosukhin: NEAR Is The Only Network Already Ready For Quantum (Quantum Ready)”
Key takeaways
- Illia Polosukhin says NEAR designed its account model for quantum risk back in 2018.
- He says adding a new cryptographic curve takes about 200 lines of code, with Delythium (ML-DSA) live on mainnet since July.
- Polosukhin says any account can switch to post-quantum cryptography with one button, without moving assets or paying taxes.
- He describes NEAR Intents as a "market of markets" aggregating crypto, Nasdaq and NYSE liquidity.
- Polosukhin says NEAR walked away from the zero-sum competition between layer ones to become a shared liquidity layer.
NEAR Intents as a market of markets
Illia Polosukhin describes NEAR Intents as a universal aggregator that lets anyone trade anything by finding the best counterparty, not just crypto assets but eventually physical and real-world services. He points to Quantstamp as an example: it has no centralized exchange listing but trades easily through NEAR Intents and near.com with good liquidity. He says the system has now expanded beyond crypto venues to include Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange, so an intent to buy an asset could be filled by a solver who buys it on Nasdaq and tokenizes it into the user's wallet in real time.
Polosukhin frames this as a deliberate break from the "zero-sum game of layer ones," where chains competed for developers to build on them. Instead, he says NEAR positioned itself as a shared liquidity layer that benefits from collaboration with other blockchains, apps and protocols. He credits partnerships, including with the show's hosts, for helping spread this message, calling distribution one of NEAR's historical challenges despite its technical progress.
Why NEAR says it is ready for quantum computing
Responding to a post from Justin Drake urging the industry toward "bunker mode" over quantum risk, Polosukhin says NEAR built its account model with quantum threats in mind as early as 2018, allowing users to rotate and add keys with different cryptography. He says adding a new cryptographic curve takes about 200 lines of code, which he says he personally wrote. Earlier this year, after a new algorithm for recovering private keys from public keys began circulating, NEAR moved to ship a standardized post-quantum implementation, launching Delythium (ML-DSA) on mainnet around July.
He says any NEAR account holder can now switch to post-quantum cryptography with one click, without withdrawing assets or triggering tax events, and that NEAR accounts can hold assets on Ethereum, Bitcoin and other chains under that same protection. He notes ML-DSA is already used elsewhere, including in Chrome. Asked whether holding assets via NEAR protects a user if Ethereum itself were compromised, Polosukhin says NEAR's infrastructure and Shield analysis systems are built to detect and handle such issues, though he does not specify what recourse exists if a connected chain is directly affected.
"I literally wrote that code. It takes effectively like 200 lines of code to add a new cryptographic curve." — Illia Polosukhin
Written by AI from the video's transcript. It can compress, misattribute or miss context — the original video is the source. Not investment advice.
