The digital asset industry is taking a decisive step toward the quantum era. The Responsible Fintech Institute (RFI), together with Safeheron, has announced a large-scale cross-regional pilot project to implement post-quantum cryptography. A key feature of the initiative is the direct participation of banks and government regulators, which underscores the seriousness of market participants' intentions to prepare infrastructure for new challenges.
As part of the pilot, the goal is to test how effective quantum-resistant infrastructure is in generating wallets and conducting transactions with digital assets. Safeheron acts as the technology partner, providing the software foundation, while RFI takes on the coordination of participants and management of cross-jurisdictional interaction.
Technical Foundation and Participants
At the core of the program is a 2-of-2 MPC protocol with support for ML-DSA-65, a digital signature standard that complies with the NIST FIPS 204 specification. This is one of the most promising candidates for the role of a "quantum shield" for blockchain systems. Testing will take place on the quantum-resistant NEAR testnet, where researchers will evaluate not only basic operations but also cross-border compatibility, operational resilience, and compliance with governance requirements.
The list of participants is impressive: regulators from Abu Dhabi Global Market, the Financial Services Authority of Gelephu (Bhutan), and the Malta Financial Services Authority. Among the banking partners are Bison Bank and DK Bank. In the first phase, government entities will act as observers, and in the second phase, they will join governance matters, which will make it possible to develop practical recommendations for the regulatory environment.
Openness and the Future
Based on the testing results, the authors plan to publish a white paper with a detailed description of the research, protocol design, and findings. Moreover, they intend to open the source code of the underlying technology for independent audit and further industry use. This is an important step toward creating open security standards in the post-quantum era.
The launch of the pilot is not just a technical experiment, but a strategic preparation of critical financial infrastructure for the transition to new cryptographic standards. The project aims to demonstrate how such solutions behave in real-world conditions of regulated financial institutions.
My comment: This initiative is a timely signal for the entire industry. Quantum computing is ceasing to be a theoretical threat and is becoming a matter of the coming years. Banks and regulators that invest in post-quantum protection now will gain a significant competitive advantage. However, the main challenge is not technology, but standardization and coordination between jurisdictions, and this pilot is an important step in the right direction.