The XRP Ledger Foundation has published a proposal in its 2027 protocol roadmap for the XRP Ledger to support quantum-resistant signatures. The page was updated on November 4, 2026. The proposal is under development: it is not approved and not active on the mainnet.
There is no practical quantum threat today. The topic is studied in advance for this reason: when you sign a transaction, your public key becomes visible, and a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could derive the private key from it.
What it proposes
Accounts, validators and validator list publishers could sign with ML-DSA-44 instead of secp256k1 or Ed25519. ML-DSA-44 is a post-quantum standard from NIST (FIPS 204), published in August 2024.
For users, it would work like this: the account owner assigns an ML-DSA-44 signing key and disables the classic master key. The address does not change. While the classic master key remains active, the account stays exposed. Accounts that do not make the switch also stay exposed.
The cost in size
The new signatures are larger. The public key takes 1,312 bytes and the signature up to 2,420 bytes. Together they add up to 3,732 bytes, compared with 105 bytes (33 + 72) for a classic payment. A transaction signed this way takes about 5,331 bytes, roughly 3.1 times the size of a regular 1,704-byte payment.
The proposal does not change fees, and the base fee stays the same (minimum 10 drops). The migration study has to decide whether the size needs its own fee rule.
Timeline and budget
The roadmap includes a post-quantum migration study in the first half of 2027. Development, review and audit would come in late 2027 or in 2028. The estimated budget ranges from 215,000 to 255,000 USD, plus 640 development hours. It includes Ripple's review (40,000 to 80,000 USD), an external audit (100,000 USD), a reference implementation (50,000 USD) and adapting the Ledger wallet and other wallets (25,000 USD).
Current status
A working test version already runs on AlphaNet, a test network, and there are also versions for xrpl.js and for the publisher tools. It is not yet part of the main software, it is not on the mainnet and it has no XLS number. To go live, it would have to go through the amendment process and be approved by validators.
Several points remain open:
- The Python prototype derives different keys from the ones the server and xrpl.js derive from the same seed.
- Shared test vectors are missing.
- The effect of larger signatures on the network and on consensus with around 150 validators has not been measured yet.
- An external cryptographic audit is missing.
- It has not been decided whether ML-DSA-44 or another variant will be used, or whether there will be a hybrid signature.
Ripple's plan
On April 20, 2026, Ripple published a four-phase plan to prepare the XRP Ledger for quantum computing. It is signed by Ayo Akinyele. The fourth phase targets a full transition by 2028 at the latest, through a new amendment. Ripple is working with Project Eleven on validator tests, performance measurements on Devnet and a post-quantum custody wallet prototype.
It is best to read 2028 as a target, not as an approved date.
Sources
- XRP Ledger Foundation: Quantum (2027 protocol roadmap)
- Ripple: Post-quantum readiness on the XRP Ledger
- NIST FIPS 204 (ML-DSA)
