Sonic Research said on Monday that most proof-of-stake blockchains may face a difficult transition when post-quantum cryptography becomes necessary, while SonicCS can upgrade by replacing only its signature scheme.
The claim centers on how many PoS networks depend on elliptic-curve signatures and aggregation systems that quantum machines could break in the future.
Meanwhile, the research note puts emphasis on a technical problem which now is gaining broader attention within the crypto community. Most blockchains use elliptic-curve cryptography to authenticate validator activities, wallets, and validate ownership of assets.
Sonic remarked that design is effective today, but it can be a weak point when quantum computing is developed to a level that can crack those signature systems.
PoS chains face quantum shift
Proof-of-stake blockchains depend on validators that lock tokens and help the network agree on new blocks.
Those validators propose data, confirm blocks, and risk slashing if they act against network rules. This model reduces energy use compared with proof-of-work, but it still depends on strong cryptography.
Sonic Research said most current PoS chains rely on elliptic-curve signatures such as ECDSA or Ed25519. Those systems help prove that validators and users control their accounts and transactions. They also help maintain trust in the ledger without a central authority.
The research note said a sufficiently powerful quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm could break the math behind elliptic-curve cryptography. That could let an attacker recover a private key from a public key and then forge signatures.
Sonic said hash functions remain more resilient under post-quantum assumptions, while elliptic-curve systems would need full replacement.
Sonic included a comment from Bernhard Scholz, the company’s chief research officer, to frame that risk.
“Whether Sufficiently Powerful Quantum computers for cracking elliptic curves will arrive tomorrow or in 50 years – this is everyone’s best guess. Though I am critical about the availability of such powerful Quantum computers in the near future, the industry must be prepared,” he noted.
The aggregation problem
Sonic Research said the main challenge for many PoS chains is not consensus logic alone but the cryptographic tools used inside it.
Many leader-based and DAG-based protocols rely on certificate systems, threshold signatures, or BLS aggregation to compress validator votes into a single object that is easy to verify. That structure helps networks scale, but it becomes harder to maintain in a post-quantum setting.
The research note said no NIST-standardized post-quantum version of BLS aggregation exists today. Because of that, chains that depend on those schemes may need more than a simple cryptographic swap.
They may need to change certificate structures, verification flows, bandwidth models, and parts of protocol design. Meanwhile, Sonic said current post-quantum options also come with trade-offs. Lattice-based schemes such as Dilithium and Falcon do not offer cheap aggregation in the same way.
Hash-based schemes such as SPHINCS+ can produce much larger signatures. That means a post-quantum version of many existing PoS protocols could face larger certificates, heavier bandwidth use, and higher verification costs.
The report said some protocols may even need to remove aggregation and redesign around different trust assumptions. That would make migration more complex and more costly. Sonic used that point to argue that protocol architecture matters as much as the choice of signature scheme.
SonicCS uses simpler tools
Sonic said its own consensus model avoids that problem because SonicCS uses only per-event signatures and hash functions.
In the protocol, validators spread events through gossip rather than through an acknowledgment round or a global randomness beacon. Sonic said the system also does not create aggregate certificates.
Each event in the DAG carries a standard digital signature from its creator. Hash functions link parent events. Sonic said that means the protocol uses fewer cryptographic components than many other PoS systems.
Because of that, the network can move to post-quantum security by replacing event and transaction signatures with a NIST-standardized scheme. Additionally, the company named Dilithium and Falcon as examples of post-quantum signature schemes that could support such a move.
Under that model, Sonic said the consensus logic, DAG structure, and liveness assumptions would remain the same. The research note presents this as a cleaner upgrade path than the one many other PoS chains may face.
Sonic said this design gives it more flexibility if the industry starts moving toward post-quantum standards. The firm argued that owning its consensus protocol end to end allows it to make changes at the cryptographic layer without having to rebuild the full system.
Sonic ties research to strategy
The research note arrives as blockchain teams give more attention to long-term infrastructure planning.
Post-quantum security remains a future concern for many networks, but teams are starting to discuss how their systems would respond if current signature schemes become unsafe. Sonic used its latest note to place itself among the projects preparing for that shift early.
The wider market is also seeing similar moves. Tron said it has started protecting its blockchain against future quantum computing risks.
On April 15, founder Justin Sun said the network had launched a post-quantum upgrade initiative aimed at bringing quantum-resistant cryptographic signatures to its mainnet.
Furthemore, the company linked the technical case to its broader product direction. In November, Sonic Labs said it would shift its focus from raw transaction speed to long-term business value and token sustainability.
The team said future upgrades would aim to deliver measurable outcomes for builders, validators, and S token holders.