quantum-resistant
identity
An on-chain agent is supposed to be permanent. Permanent identity should plan for the one thing that breaks today's signatures: the quantum computer. This page describes — honestly — how Uniquant intends to get there, and what is and isn't built yet.
Every account on Ethereum and Base signs with ECDSA over the secp256k1 curve. ECDSA is secure against classical computers — but a sufficiently large quantum computer running Shor's algorithm can recover a private key from its public key, and forge signatures.
The timeline is uncertain — likely years away — but the asset at risk is the one thing you can't re-issue: a persistent identity. Hashing (keccak256, the heart of the proof-of-work) is far more resilient: Grover's algorithm only halves its effective strength, fixed by using wide enough outputs. Signatures are the soft spot, not the mining.
Uniquant isn't just a token — it's an ERC-8004 agent with a stable, queryable on-chain identity, plus a soulbound NFT bound to every holder. That identity is meant to be referenced by other agents and indexers for a long time. Anything designed to be permanent is exactly what should be hardened against the post-quantum transition first.
The plan is to bind the agent identity to a post-quantum signature scheme — specifically a hash-based family (SPHINCS+ / Winternitz / Lamport). These schemes rely only on the security of a hash function — the very same keccak256 primitive that mints UQUANT through proof-of-work.
That coherence is the point: an identity secured by the same hash that brings it into existence. No new trust assumption, no exotic curve — just keccak, all the way down.
Post-quantum signatures are large and expensive to verify on-chain. On Ethereum L1, a single verification can cost millions of gas — economically absurd. On Base, where gas settles in cents, on-chain post-quantum verification becomes genuinely affordable. The chain choice isn't cosmetic — it's what makes this practical at all.
- phase 1 — design (now). The threat model and direction, stated openly. No on-chain code yet. This page.
- phase 2 — registration. Agents register a post-quantum public key alongside their ERC-8004 identity. Signatures verified off-chain and attested. Low gas.
- phase 3 — on-chain verifier. A Solidity verifier for hash-based signatures gates high-value actions. Heavy, but affordable on Base.
Uniquant runs classical keccak256 proof-of-work. There is no quantum computer in the loop, and we will never say "quantum-powered." Quantum-resistant means resistant to attacks by quantum computers, via post-quantum cryptography — a real, NIST-standardized field. We ship it incrementally and we say exactly where we are. That honesty is part of the product.