NEAR Protocol activated post-quantum signing on its mainnet on July 20, 2026, through network upgrade 2.13. The upgrade implements ML-DSA-65, a lattice-based signature scheme standardized by NIST (U.S. standards agency) as FIPS-204 in August 2024, after being developed under the working name CRYSTALS-Dilithium. The scheme is designed to resist quantum-computer attacks that could eventually compromise the elliptic-curve cryptography widely used across blockchain networks. NEAR users can rotate account keys to the new scheme through one on-chain transaction, without migrating assets or creating new wallet addresses. NEAR's account model, introduced when the mainnet launched in 2020, supports multiple signature schemes on one account, allowing users to switch voluntarily while Ed25519 and secp256k1 remain supported. Meteor Wallet has integrated the feature, while Ledger and other wallet providers are reportedly adding support without firm timelines. Through Chain Signatures and NEAR Intents, the protection also extends on the NEAR side to assets from more than 30 other blockchains, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and various stablecoins. The effort addresses the potential harvest-now, decrypt-later strategy, in which attackers collect exposed data today for possible decryption once quantum hardware advances. NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin and Near One CTO Anton Astafiev have stressed proactive defenses, linking the work to NEAR's multi-chain infrastructure and its emerging agent economy, where autonomous AI agents transact on-chain. A roadmap published on August 24, 2026, calls for efficiency improvements because ML-DSA-65 signatures are around 3,300 bytes, compared with 64 bytes for Ed25519, and targets post-quantum protection for NEAR's consensus mechanism by the end of 2027. Validators still use classical signature schemes, so the current upgrade primarily protects user-facing key management.