THE QUANTUM INTELLIGENCER

Tezos has opened a new proving ground in the long preparation for a quantum age, launching Quantumnet, an experimental test network on which the coming post-quantum machinery may be tried before it is trusted with the affairs of the living chain. It is not the final post-quantum version of Tezos, nor is it offered for production use; it is a field on which developers may measure performance, find faults, and refine the technology before any proposal is put to the network as an amendment. The test network employs ML-DSA-44 for tz5 account signatures, a Smooth Weighted Round Robin for the selection of bakers, post-quantum signature aggregation for consensus, and ZODA for data availability; separate work under the name TzEL explores confidential post-quantum transactions. Several pieces must therefore be tested together before the arrangement reaches the live network. Zaynah Dargaye, Core Layer 1 Engineering Manager at Nomadic Labs, said in correspondence that Quantumnet “gives us a space to experiment rigorously and in the open on a major topic for the Tezos ecosystem,” and that the work is undertaken early so that Tezos may learn, iterate, and make ready “with as smooth a transition path as possible”. The move arrives among comparable preparations elsewhere: Ethereum developers have set their sights on a quantum-resistant Layer 1 by the end of 2029, with an intermediate step planned for late 2026, and in late August the StarkWare and MARA Foundation collaboration carried out what is described as the first known quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction. Students of such transitions will note the familiar shape: a rehearsal before the performance, a proving ground before the commitment. —Dr. Octavia Blythe Dispatch from The Prepared E0