Sui Lays Out Its Path to Quantum-Safe Accounts

Sui has published a detailed plan to protect accounts against future quantum computers, and it is choosing the stronger option over the cheaper one.

The plan

According to the Sui blog, the network will use two NIST-standardized signature schemes:

• ML-DSA-65 (FIPS 204) for everyday native account authentication.
• SLH-DSA-SHA2-128s, a hash-based scheme, for high-value vaults.

The stated targets are quantum-safe vaults on mainnet this year, native ML-DSA-65 accounts on testnet by the end of the year, and native account authentication on mainnet in Q1 2027. Sui says the timelines stay open while independent audits and testnet feedback continue, and that wallet, SDK and CLI support will ship alongside.

Why the stronger setting

Sui is adopting ML-DSA at NIST Level 3 rather than the lighter Level 1. The team cited a July 2026 incident in which an AI model cut the effective key strength of HAWK, a different post-quantum candidate, in about 60 hours, after two years of human review had cleared it. That finding does not affect ML-DSA, but Sui says it is a reason to carry extra margin. In a follow-up post, its cryptographers said verification at that level is roughly on par with Ed25519, which keeps the cost low.

Level 3 is also where Chrome and Cloudflare landed for post-quantum encryption on the web, and Sui says it verified compatibility with hardware wallet and HSM vendors. Ledger's SDK now supports ML-DSA, and Sui reports that signatures work between the two implementations in both directions.

What it means for holders

Adoption is opt-in, and existing accounts do not need to move funds. Sui says address aliases, which are already deployed, let an account switch its authorization key to a post-quantum key while keeping the same address and assets.

One timing discrepancy remains. The Herald Business quoted Mysten Labs co-founder Adeniyi Abiodun as saying quantum defenses would deploy on mainnet "next month." That likely refers to the vaults. The official blog lists Q1 2027 as the target for native accounts, and SuiWire treats that as the date of record.