Post-quantum infrastructure company QuFi Network has launched a verification platform designed to protect digital assets from future quantum computing threats without the need to modify existing blockchain settlement networks.
The platform separates verification from settlement, using a decentralized node network to verify transactions with post-quantum cryptography before they are executed on existing blockchain networks.
QuFi also launched uBTC—a proof-of-concept applying the verification system to Bitcoin ($BTC) and operating on Bitcoin Testnet4. The uBTC system verifies collateral in $BTC and generates cryptographic proofs governing the movement of value between settlement environments, while final redemption is executed as a standard Bitcoin transaction.
The platform utilizes three post-quantum cryptographic standards—ML-DSA-65, SLH-DSA, and ML-KEM-1024—for digital signatures and secure key exchange.
QuFi stated that the external verification layer aims to avoid the additional storage, bandwidth, and computational resource requirements that could arise from directly integrating larger post-quantum signatures into individual blockchains.
Related: The First Quantum Attack on Crypto Will Look Like an Unexplained Security Breach: Quantus Founder
Crypto Industry Ramps Up Quantum Defense
The platform launch comes amid a series of recent initiatives preparing blockchain networks for potential threats from quantum computing.
In August, StarkWare tested a quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction on the mainnet without requiring a fork. However, the computation took several hours and cost roughly $150–$200, and the non-standard transaction format required direct submission to a miner.
Jonas Nick presenting the BIP SHRINCS proposal on August 26. Source: Jonas Nick
That same month, banks and regulators across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia joined a pilot project testing post-quantum wallets and on-chain transfers using ML-DSA-65—one of the same cryptographic standards included in QuFi's platform. Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation removed the Poseidon hash function from its planned post-quantum architecture in favor of proven alternatives like SHA or BLAKE.
Bitcoin developers are also exploring protocol-level defenses. In August, Blockstream researchers published a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal for SHRINCS—an experimental post-quantum signature scheme designed to reduce the size and computational costs associated with quantum-resistant signatures.
This approach has trade-offs. SHRINCS uses stateful signatures to reduce their size, requiring wallets to track previously used signing keys. The scheme remains early-stage, lacking a complete security proof, and its design increases system complexity and creates additional potential user error scenarios.
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