Hardy Index Quantum readiness benchmark

Chain profile

Algorand

ALGO Shipping

Falcon-signed State Proofs have secured Algorand's history since 2022 and Falcon-signed transactions have run on mainnet since November 2025, with broad resilience targeted for end-2027.

Is Algorand quantum-safe?

Partly, and further along than most. Algorand has used Falcon, a post-quantum signature scheme, to sign its State Proofs since 2022, which protects the integrity of the chain's history against a future quantum adversary rewriting it. In November 2025 it went further and completed the first fully Falcon-signed transaction on mainnet, and more than 140,000 quantum-resistant transactions had been recorded by early 2026. What is not yet true is that ordinary Algorand accounts are quantum-safe: standard accounts still use Ed25519, and on Algorand the account address is derived directly from the public key, so every account's key is effectively public from the moment it exists. Algorand has published a dated plan to close that gap: native Falcon-1024 accounts at the protocol level in Q3 2026, Falcon-512 by the end of 2026, and broad quantum resilience including post-quantum multisig by the end of 2027.

At a glance

On mainnet today

Ed25519 for standard accounts; Falcon for State Proofs and post-quantum transactions

Post-quantum scheme

Falcon-1024 (native accounts, Q3 2026), Falcon-512 (end-2026)

NIST standard

Falcon, selected by NIST for standardisation as FN-DSA; standard not final at time of writing

Readiness tier

Tier 2: Shipping. Post-quantum signature features are live on mainnet and a migration for existing holders is underway.

Score breakdown

Each dimension scored 0 to 10. The weight beside it is its share of the total score.
Signature scheme 9 30% Deployment stage 8 25% NIST alignment 8 15% Migration path 8 15% Exposure 2 10% Verification 9 5%
Show the weighted arithmetic and the sourced note for each dimension
No. Dimension Score Weight Contribution
1 Signature scheme 9 30% 27.0
2 Deployment stage 8 25% 20.0
3 NIST alignment 8 15% 12.0
4 Migration path 8 15% 12.0
5 Exposure 2 10% 2.0
6 Verification 9 5% 4.5
Hardy Score 77.5

1 Signature scheme 9/10, weighted 30%

Band 7 to 9: A post-quantum signature is available on mainnet at the protocol level as a first-class account type.

Falcon now operates at the protocol level on mainnet in three places: State Proofs signed with Falcon since 2022, Falcon-signed transactions since 3 November 2025, and native Falcon-1024 account signatures plus post-quantum delegated LogicSigs delivered by the go-algorand 5.0.0 consensus upgrade, with algokey pq key management commands. Standard accounts still default to Ed25519 and post-quantum accounts are opt-in. source

Placement in the band The top of the band: Falcon is a protocol-level, first-class account type rather than an application-level primitive, which is what separates this band from the one below. It is not a 10 because that band requires the post-quantum scheme to be mandatory for every account.

2 Deployment stage 8/10, weighted 25%

Band 8: Tier 2: Shipping.

Tier 2: Shipping. Post-quantum signatures are live on mainnet and a dated migration to native post-quantum accounts is publicly scheduled and underway. source

3 NIST alignment 8/10, weighted 15%

Band 6 to 8: The scheme is NIST-selected but the standard is not yet final, or a NIST-approved scheme is named but not yet deployed.

Falcon was selected by NIST for standardisation as FN-DSA, but that standard was not final at the time of writing, unlike ML-DSA (FIPS 204) and SLH-DSA (FIPS 205). Algorand is using a NIST-selected scheme ahead of its final publication. source

Placement in the band The top of the band rather than a 6 or a 7: Falcon is a NIST selection actually deployed on mainnet, not merely named for future adoption. It cannot reach 9 because FN-DSA was not final at the time of writing, so the scheme in use is not yet covered by a published standard.

4 Migration path 8/10, weighted 15%

Band 6 to 8: A credible published plan exists with a mechanism identified, but key parts are unbuilt or undated.

The published roadmap is specific and dated: Falcon-1024 native accounts derivable from existing 25-word seed phrases in the Q3 2026 protocol release with SDK and Pera Wallet support, hybrid accounts as a transitional measure, Falcon-512 by end-2026, and post-quantum multisig by end-2027. Deriving post-quantum accounts from existing seed phrases is a materially low-friction path. source

Placement in the band The top of the band: the plan is dated, specific and mechanically low-friction, with post-quantum accounts derivable from existing seed phrases. It is not a 9 because holders cannot migrate today, native Falcon-1024 accounts being due in the Q3 2026 release.

5 Exposure 2/10, weighted 10%

Band 0 to 2: Public keys are exposed for effectively all accounts, or a large, measured share of total supply sits in exposed addresses.

Algorand is an account-model chain in which the address is a direct encoding of the Ed25519 public key. Every account's public key is therefore exposed on-chain from creation, whether or not it has ever transacted, so effectively all classical supply is harvestable today. source

Placement in the band At the top of the band rather than a 0 or a 1: every key is exposed from creation, which meets this band on its structural limb, but no measured share of at-risk supply has been published and holders already have a live post-quantum account type to move to.

6 Verification 9/10, weighted 5%

Band 9 to 10: Open source, independently audited, with the claim checkable on-chain or in public research.

Algorand's claims are checkable on-chain: State Proofs and Falcon-signed transactions are publicly verifiable ledger artefacts rather than assertions. The protocol is open source and the roadmap is published with named dates that can be checked against as they pass. source

Placement in the band Not a 10: the on-chain artefacts are genuinely checkable, but the dated roadmap carrying most of the migration score is a published commitment rather than something an auditor can verify today.

The deployment dimension is not a separate judgement. It is Tier 2 expressed as a number. See the tier mapping.

How it compares

All 31 rated chains on the 0 to 100 scale. Algorand is marked. Select any point to open that profile.
Algorand 77.5

Nearest chains in the ranking

The 9 chains Algorand sits among, out of 31 rated. The last column is the gap in Hardy points from Algorand.

Rank Chain Tier Hardy vs ALGO
1 Quantum Resistant Ledger 1: Native 92.0 +14.5
2 Mochimo 1: Native 90.0 +12.5
3 Abelian 1: Native 84.5 +7.0
4 NEAR Protocol 2: Shipping 81.5 +4.0
5 Algorand this chain 2: Shipping 77.5
6 Nervos CKB 2: Shipping 75.5 -2.0
7 Bitcoin Cash 2: Shipping 66.0 -11.5
8 Solana 2: Shipping 54.5 -23.0
9 XRP Ledger 3: Committed 46.5 -31.0

Roadmap

  1. August 2022 shipped

    State Proofs go live on mainnet, signed with Falcon, compressing and attesting the ledger's state every 256 rounds. source

  2. 3 November 2025 shipped

    The first fully Falcon-signed transaction completes on Algorand mainnet. source

  3. Early 2026 shipped

    More than 140,000 quantum-resistant transactions recorded on mainnet. source

  4. Q3 2026 in-progress

    Native Falcon-1024 accounts at the protocol level, derivable from the standard 25-word seed phrase, with SDK, AlgoKit and Pera Wallet support. source

  5. End of 2026 planned

    Falcon-512 support, hybrid multisig, and staking support for quantum-resistant accounts. source

  6. End of 2027 planned

    Broad quantum resilience: post-quantum multisig for institutions and treasuries, plus research into post-quantum VRF and consensus-message signatures. source

Exposure

Exposure measures how much of the chain's value already sits behind a public key that an attacker can record today and break later. This is the part of the threat that a future upgrade cannot undo.

Algorand's exposure is structural and total for classical accounts. An Algorand address is a direct encoding of the account's Ed25519 public key plus a checksum, so the public key is readable from the address itself. Unlike Bitcoin or Cardano, there is no hashing step that keeps an unspent account's key private, and unlike those chains, never transacting does not help. Any Algorand balance held in a standard account is therefore fully harvestable today, which is why Algorand scores 2 on exposure despite scoring 8 on its signature scheme. This is precisely the gap the Q3 2026 native Falcon account release is meant to close.

What this rating means for you

If you hold Algorand

Algorand has post-quantum signatures live on mainnet, but they are not the default, so holders have to opt in. That makes this one of the few chains where you can act today rather than wait.

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From the newsroom

What we have published about this chain

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Questions

Is Algorand quantum-safe?

Not yet in full, but more of Algorand is post-quantum protected than almost any other major chain. Falcon-signed State Proofs have secured the chain's history since 2022 and Falcon-signed transactions have been possible on mainnet since November 2025. Standard Algorand accounts still use Ed25519, which is quantum-vulnerable.

What are Algorand State Proofs and what do they protect?

State Proofs are post-quantum compact certificates that attest to and compress the ledger's state every 256 rounds, and they are signed with Falcon. They protect the historical integrity of the chain, meaning a future quantum adversary could not forge an alternative history that light clients or cross-chain bridges would accept. They do not protect the funds in an individual Ed25519 account.

When will Algorand accounts be quantum-resistant?

Algorand's published roadmap schedules native Falcon-1024 accounts at the protocol level for the Q3 2026 release, with SDK and Pera Wallet support so accounts can be derived from the existing 25-word seed phrase. Falcon-512 and hybrid multisig follow by the end of 2026, and broad quantum resilience is targeted for the end of 2027.

Why does Algorand score badly on exposure?

Because an Algorand address is a direct encoding of the account's public key. There is no hash in between, so every account's Ed25519 public key is visible on-chain from the moment the address exists, even if it has never sent a transaction. That makes every classical Algorand balance harvestable today for a future quantum attacker.

Is Falcon a NIST standard?

Falcon was selected by NIST for standardisation as FN-DSA, but at the time of writing that standard had not been finalised, unlike ML-DSA (FIPS 204) and SLH-DSA (FIPS 205), which were published in August 2024. Algorand is therefore deploying a NIST-selected scheme ahead of its final publication.

Sources

  1. Post-Quantum Technology: Algorand's Quantum Resilience Journey Algorand Foundation · primary · checked 11 August 2026
  2. Algorand targets broad quantum resilience by 2027 Algorand Foundation · primary · checked 11 August 2026
  3. Technical Brief: Quantum-resistant transactions on Algorand with Falcon signatures Algorand Foundation · primary · checked 11 August 2026
  4. Algorand 5.0.0 algorand (GitHub) · primary · checked 13 August 2026
Cite this rating

A rating is only true as of the day it was reviewed, so both forms below carry the review date and the methodology version. If you are quoting the score, quote those too.

Plain text

The Hardy Index (2026). Algorand: quantum readiness assessment. Hardy Score 77.5 of 100, Tier 2: Shipping. Methodology v1.4. Reviewed 2 October 2026. https://hardyindex.com/chains/algorand

BibTeX 
@misc{hardyindex_algorand_2026,
  author       = {{The Hardy Index}},
  title        = {Algorand: quantum readiness assessment},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://hardyindex.com/chains/algorand}},
  note         = {Hardy Score 77.5 of 100, Tier 2: Shipping. Methodology v1.4},
  urldate      = {2026-10-02}
}

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This is a security-readiness assessment, not investment advice.