NEAR began rebuilding its security model in Q2 2026 for a future in which quantum computers could defeat signature systems used across crypto, Anton Astafiev, CTO at Near One, and Mally Anderson, a writer at NEAR, said. The first protocol change added ML-DSA, also known as Dilithium, allowing users to store assets and grant permissions with quantum-safe keys. The protection covers assets issued on more than 30 other blockchains through Chain Signatures and NEAR intents, even before those networks make their own quantum-security upgrades. Meteor Wallet supports the solution, while Ledger and other wallet developers are integrating it. Near One is working to reduce the higher storage and transaction costs of post-quantum signatures and is evaluating FN-DSA, or Falcon, but has not implemented it. Universal Account IDs are planned for the next protocol release in autumn 2026, with NEP-641 intended to extend the structure to off-chain activity and allow later signature additions. Validator accounts can already use post-quantum keys for transaction approval and staking confirmation, but consensus still depends on the Edison curve for block production. Near One is targeting a workable quantum-safe consensus design in about 12 months and deployment around the end of 2027. Cross-chain support remains a major obstacle because most blockchains use ECDSA or EdDSA, while NEAR's MPC network currently uses those algorithms for outbound threshold-signed transactions. NEAR expects host functions in 2027 to verify post-quantum consensus signatures used by other chains, but no post-quantum threshold-signing solution is yet available. Near One is also investigating quantum-resistant Confidential Key Derivation, or CKD, whose permanent recovery keys are not currently quantum-resistant.