BSC Adopts Post-Quantum Cryptography with ML-DSA-44 Upgrade
BNB Chain (BSC) has implemented a significant upgrade to its cryptographic framework, integrating post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to future-proof its transaction and consensus layers against emerging threats from quantum computing. The migration involves adopting ML-DSA-44, a lattice-based signature scheme standardized by NIST in 2024, and pqSTARK aggregation for consensus, according to a detailed migration report published on May 14, 2026. The upgrade addresses vulnerabilities tied to Shors algorithm, which could eventually break elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC) used in most blockchains today. While quantum computers capable of such attacks are estimated to be 10–20 years away, this move positions BSC as an early adopter of quantum-resistant infrastructure, alongside networks like NEAR and TRON, which have also begun PQC integrations in 2026. Key Migration Details Under the new framework, transaction signatures on BSC transition from ECDSA (secp256k1) to ML-DSA-44, while consensus vote aggregation now uses pqSTARK. However, these changes come with performance trade-offs:Transaction size: Increases from 110 bytes to ~2.5 KB, significantly expanding block sizes from ~130 KB to ~2 MB at equivalent throughput.Throughput: Network tests show a 40–50% reduction in transactions per second (TPS) due to the larger size of post-quantum signatures.Compression: Despite the larger data payload, pqSTARK achieves a 43:1 aggregation ratio, enabling efficient consensus-layer