Hardy Index Quantum readiness, rated and tracked

Chain profile

Whitechain

WBT Exposed

Accounts on the Whitechain layer 1 sign with ECDSA on secp256k1, its proof-of-authority blocks are sealed with a secp256k1 signature from one authorised signer, and no post-quantum plan, proposal or research programme was found.

Is Whitechain quantum-safe?

No. Whitechain, the WhiteBIT layer 1 with chain ID 1875 whose genesis block is timestamped 3 August 2023, runs a fork of go-ethereum under Clique proof of authority. Accounts are Ethereum-style externally owned accounts that sign transactions with ECDSA on the secp256k1 curve, and each block is sealed with a secp256k1 signature that every node recovers and checks against the list of authorised signers. Read from the chain on 23 October 2026, that list holds a single address. A sufficiently large quantum computer running Shor's algorithm would break both signatures. No post-quantum roadmap, improvement proposal, research programme or code was found in the wbt node repository, Whitechain's documentation or its blog, which is why Whitechain sits in Tier 5. Whitechain has announced that it will become an OP Stack layer 2 settling on Ethereum, with the layer 1 made read-only at the migration, targeted for fall 2026; this profile rates the layer 1 that is producing blocks today. WBT also circulates as an ERC-20 on Ethereum and as a TRC-20 on Tron, and those copies are protected by their host chains' signatures.

Where we are making a judgement call Three judgement calls carry this profile, and two matters of control belong beside them. The first judgement is scope. Whitechain is rated on the precedent of WEMIX and Hedera, whose block producers are permissioned, because it runs its own Clique consensus on a public mainnet that anyone can transact on. Its block producers are not open to the public: the node README says only selected validator nodes generate blocks, and the signer list in the extra data of epoch block 50,820,000, read through Whitechain's public RPC endpoint on 23 October 2026, holds one address, 0xa3e7238883a8c53d218dabf4a2541b569ac0b232, the same address as in the genesis block. A stricter reading would leave it out of the index rather than score it differently. The second is migration. The record of coordinated hard forks is credited at the top of the lowest band, as for other EVM chains without key rotation; a reader who credits nothing short of a mechanism would score 1 and take the Hardy Score from 8.5 to 7.0. The third is timing. Whitechain has announced a move to an OP Stack layer 2 on Ethereum, with the layer 1 frozen at a migration targeted for fall 2026. That plan does not count here, because the rubric rates what runs today, and Whitechain leaves the index when its layer 1 stops producing blocks under its own consensus. The first matter of control is that single signer key, which decides which blocks and transactions enter the chain and, under Clique, which further signers are admitted. The second is minting. The node gives a single mint owner account, 0x6960B8EC5EEa77009F05b793c1865ba4F5168cb8, the power to create new WBT by sending a mint instruction that cites a burn transaction on Ethereum or Tron; the node code says that burn is verified manually rather than by the protocol. Read from the chain on 23 October 2026, that owner was still an externally owned account and the remaining mint limit was 270,816,187 WBT, a limit the owner can lower but not raise. Both keys are secp256k1 and quantum-vulnerable like every other key on the chain.

At a glance

On mainnet today

ECDSA on secp256k1 for account transactions and for Clique block seals

Post-quantum scheme

None selected or proposed.

NIST standard

None adopted.

Readiness tier

Tier 5: Exposed. The signatures securing funds on mainnet today are quantum-vulnerable, and no public post-quantum plan, proposal or research programme addressing them could be found.

Cryptography in use

  • Account signatures ECDSA on secp256k1 Mainnet, default Sender recovery through go-ethereum's signer, with chain ID 1875 set in the mainnet configuration. The mint instruction is an ordinary transaction from the mint owner's account, so it is authorised by the same scheme. Source code or release
  • Validator consensus ECDSA on secp256k1 Mainnet, mandatory Clique's ecrecover recovers the sealer from the 65-byte signature in each header and checks it against the authorised signer list, which at epoch block 50,820,000 held one address. Source code or release

A role not listed is not evidenced either way. Every scheme, and which other chains share it, is in the cryptography registry.

Score breakdown

Each dimension scored 0 to 10. The weight beside it is its share of the total score.
Signature scheme 0 30% Deployment stage 1 25% NIST alignment 0 15% Migration path 2 15% Exposure 2 10% Verification 2 5%
Show the weighted arithmetic and the sourced note for each dimension
No. Dimension Score Weight Contribution
1 Signature scheme 0 30% 0.0
2 Deployment stage 1 25% 2.5
3 NIST alignment 0 15% 0.0
4 Migration path 2 15% 3.0
5 Exposure 2 10% 2.0
6 Verification 2 5% 1.0
Hardy Score 8.5

1 Signature scheme 0/10, weighted 30%

Band 0: Classical signatures only on mainnet, with nothing post-quantum protecting live funds. Short-lived devnets and one-off benchmarks sit here: they demonstrate research rather than something a user can hold keys on.

Whitechain validates transactions through go-ethereum's signer, which recovers an ECDSA secp256k1 sender, and Clique recovers each block's sealer from a secp256k1 signature in the header's extra data. Nothing post-quantum protects WBT or any asset on the chain today. source

2 Deployment stage 1/10, weighted 25%

Band 1: Tier 5: Exposed.

Tier 5: Exposed. The signatures that authorise spends and seal blocks are quantum-vulnerable, and no post-quantum roadmap, improvement proposal or research programme was found in the wbt repository, its release notes, Whitechain's documentation or its blog. source

3 NIST alignment 0/10, weighted 15%

Band 0 to 2: No post-quantum scheme named for the chain’s fund-protecting signatures, or a proprietary scheme with no public cryptanalysis.

No post-quantum scheme has been named for Whitechain's account or block signatures. Neither the wbt code nor Whitechain's documentation mentions one. source

Placement in the band The floor of the band rather than a 1 or a 2: no one with authority over Whitechain has named a post-quantum scheme for its signatures, even as an example, so there is nothing to place against a standard.

4 Migration path 2/10, weighted 15%

Band 0 to 2: No agreed migration path, or the proposals on the table would strand or freeze holder funds.

Whitechain has delivered coordinated hard forks through tagged node releases: Cassiopeia at block 12,571,200 in v1.1.0, Cepheus at block 22,982,391 in v1.2.0, and Sunset, scheduled for block 50,851,438 on 23 October 2026 in v1.4.0, which its release notes call mandatory for every mainnet node. A change of signature scheme could be delivered the same way. There is no mechanism for replacing an account's key in place, and nothing on post-quantum migration has been proposed. source

Placement in the band The top of the band rather than a 0 or a 1: the record of coordinated hard forks shows a change could be delivered. Not a 3, because no key rotation or account abstraction mechanism exists and the quantum problem has not been acknowledged.

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.

Whitechain uses Ethereum's account model, in which an address is a hash of the public key, so a funded account that has never sent a transaction keeps its key private. Any account that has signed has published its key, and because Whitechain accepts the same keys and addresses as Ethereum, a key that has signed on any EVM chain is exposed here too. source

Placement in the band The top of the band rather than a 1: the hashed-address model protects never-signed accounts. Not a 3, because almost all economically active WBT sits behind a key that has signed, and no measurement of the unexposed share has been published.

6 Verification 2/10, weighted 5%

Band 0 to 2: No post-quantum component exists, or the claims rest on marketing.

No post-quantum component exists for Whitechain's signatures: no code, specification or testnet implementation was found. The wbt node is open source, but under v1.8 the openness of classical code earns nothing on this dimension. source

Placement in the band The top of the band rather than a 0 or a 1: there is no post-quantum component to verify, but nothing about Whitechain is marketed as quantum-safe, so its position does not rest on marketing.

The deployment dimension is not a separate judgement. It is Tier 5 expressed as a number. See the tier mapping.

How it compares

All 80 rated chains on the 0 to 100 scale. Whitechain is marked. Select any point to open that profile.
Whitechain 8.5

Nearest chains in the ranking

The 9 chains Whitechain sits among, out of 80 rated. The last column is the gap in Hardy points from Whitechain.

Rank Chain Tier Hardy vs WBT
71 Theta Network 5: Exposed 8.5 level
72 THORChain 5: Exposed 8.5 level
73 VeChain 5: Exposed 8.5 level
74 WEMIX 5: Exposed 8.5 level
75 Whitechain this chain 5: Exposed 8.5
76 Beldex 5: Exposed 7.5 -1.0
77 Ozone Chain 5: Exposed 7.5 -1.0
78 Cronos 5: Exposed 7.0 -1.5
79 MemeCore 5: Exposed 7.0 -1.5

Roadmap

  1. 3 August 2023 shipped

    The Whitechain mainnet starts from its genesis block under Clique proof of authority, with accounts and block seals signing in ECDSA on secp256k1. Release 1.0.0 followed on 4 August 2023. source

  2. 10 January 2025 shipped

    Release v1.2.0 carries the Cepheus hard fork for mainnet at block 22,982,391. Signatures are unchanged. source

  3. 29 July 2026 planned

    Whitechain says it will become an OP Stack layer 2 settling on Ethereum, with the layer 1 frozen and made read-only at a mainnet migration targeted for fall 2026, then retired. Nothing in the plan concerns post-quantum signatures. source

  4. 23 October 2026 in-progress

    Release v1.4.0 schedules the Sunset hard fork at block 50,851,438, replacing the SoulDrop reward contract's code so that its owner can change reward rates on-chain. Signatures are unchanged. source

  5. No date published proposed

    No post-quantum proposal, research programme, implementation or testnet for Whitechain's account or block signatures was found at the time of writing. source

If holders never migrate

No stated policy

Nothing in Whitechain's documentation, blog or node repository addresses accounts that never move to post-quantum keys, because no post-quantum migration has been proposed. The planned move to a layer 2 carries balances to the same addresses and keys.

As of 23 October 2026. Published beside the score, not in it. Every chain's stance is compared on the commitments page.

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.

Whitechain follows Ethereum's address model: an address is derived from a hash of the public key, so an account that has received WBT but never sent a transaction has not revealed its key. The opening signature reveals it permanently, and active accounts sign constantly, so almost all economically meaningful WBT sits behind a key that can be collected today against a future quantum computer. Because Whitechain keys and addresses are the same as Ethereum's, a key published by a signature on any EVM chain is equally visible here. The block signer's address is recovered from every block seal, and the mint owner's account had sent ten transactions when read on 23 October 2026, so both control keys are already published. Whitechain started from its own genesis in August 2023 and is not a fork of another chain's history, so the exposure inheritance rule does not apply. WBT also exists as an ERC-20 on Ethereum and as a TRC-20 on Tron, moved to and from the layer 1 by burn and mint; those copies are protected by Ethereum's and Tron's signatures, and their exposure belongs to those chains. No measurement of exposed supply has been published.

What this rating means for you

If you hold Whitechain

Whitechain runs quantum-vulnerable signatures with no published post-quantum plan that we could find. Nothing here is urgent today, and there is also nothing scheduled to change it.

Editorial guidance from the Hardy Index.

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Questions

Is Whitechain quantum-safe?

No. Whitechain accounts sign with ECDSA on secp256k1, and blocks are sealed with secp256k1 signatures under Clique proof of authority. A sufficiently large quantum computer would break both. Nothing post-quantum protects WBT on the Whitechain layer 1 today, and no plan to change that has been published.

Who produces Whitechain blocks?

Authorised signers under Clique proof of authority. The node README says only selected validator nodes can generate blocks, and when the signer list recorded at epoch block 50,820,000 was read on 23 October 2026 it held a single address, the same one listed in the genesis block. Every node checks each block's seal against that list.

Does the move to a layer 2 change the quantum picture?

Not as announced. Whitechain says balances will carry over to the same addresses on an OP Stack layer 2 settling on Ethereum, so holders keep the same secp256k1 keys. The plan says nothing about post-quantum signatures. When the layer 1 stops producing blocks under its own consensus, it leaves this index.

What about WBT on Ethereum and Tron?

WBT also circulates as an ERC-20 on Ethereum and a TRC-20 on Tron, and the Whitechain node mints layer 1 WBT against burns on those chains. Those copies are protected by Ethereum's and Tron's signatures, and their exposure belongs to those chains' profiles rather than this one.

What would move Whitechain up the index?

A formal proposal or a public research programme on post-quantum signatures for Whitechain's accounts or block signers, from Whitechain or WhiteBIT, would meet the Tier 4 floor. A published plan naming the scheme Whitechain will adopt would meet Tier 3.

Sources

  1. wbt node client WhiteBIT (GitHub) · primary · checked 23 October 2026
  2. wbt README: PoA consensus and running a node WhiteBIT (GitHub) · primary · checked 23 October 2026
  3. wbt releases WhiteBIT (GitHub) · primary · checked 23 October 2026
  4. Release v1.2.0: Cepheus hard fork (mainnet) WhiteBIT (GitHub) · primary · checked 23 October 2026
  5. Release v1.4.0: Sunset hard fork (mainnet) WhiteBIT (GitHub) · primary · checked 23 October 2026
  6. Chain configuration, hard fork blocks and mint owner (params/config.go) WhiteBIT (GitHub) · primary · checked 23 October 2026
  7. Mainnet genesis block (core/genesis.go) WhiteBIT (GitHub) · primary · checked 23 October 2026
  8. Transaction signing (core/types/transaction_signing.go) WhiteBIT (GitHub) · primary · checked 23 October 2026
  9. Clique proof-of-authority engine (consensus/clique/clique.go) WhiteBIT (GitHub) · primary · checked 23 October 2026
  10. Mint instruction handling (core/vm/evm.go) WhiteBIT (GitHub) · primary · checked 23 October 2026
  11. Mint state contract (core/mint/contract/MintState.sol) WhiteBIT (GitHub) · primary · checked 23 October 2026
  12. WBT on L2: What Changes for Holders Whitechain · primary · checked 23 October 2026
  13. Whitechain documentation: Introduction Whitechain · primary · checked 23 October 2026
  14. Whitechain layer 1 public RPC endpoint Whitechain · primary · checked 23 October 2026
  15. Whitechain layer 1 explorer Whitechain · primary · checked 23 October 2026
Cite this rating

A rating is only true as of the day an editor last reviewed it, so both forms below carry that date and the methodology version, with the date its cited sources were last checked. If you are quoting the score, quote those too.

Plain text

The Hardy Index (2026). Whitechain: quantum readiness assessment. Hardy Score 8.5 of 100, Tier 5: Exposed. Methodology v1.8. Last reviewed 23 October 2026; sources checked 25 October 2026. https://hardyindex.com/chains/whitechain

BibTeX 
@misc{hardyindex_whitechain_2026,
  author       = {{The Hardy Index}},
  title        = {Whitechain: quantum readiness assessment},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://hardyindex.com/chains/whitechain}},
  note         = {Hardy Score 8.5 of 100, Tier 5: Exposed. Methodology v1.8},
  urldate      = {2026-10-25}
}

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