--- title: News from the Hardy Index url: "https://hardyindex.com/news" updated: 2026-10-02 posts: 19 --- # News The story behind the ratings. Each post takes one chain, sets out the dated and sourced history of what it actually shipped, and ends with the rating the Hardy Index gives it today. > This is a security-readiness assessment, not investment advice. Two things hold this feed honest. Every event carries a primary source, and the rating in every post is read live from the index rather than typed, so a post cannot claim a rating the index no longer holds. Nothing here is backdated: this publication began rating on 12 August 2026, the events described are dated and historical, and the verdict on each one is today's. ### [Zcash's roadmap citations were repointed on 19 August, and the recovery path turned out to be live](https://hardyindex.com/news/zcash-roadmap-citation-repointed-ironwood-recovery-live.md) What changed, published 14 September 2026. On 19 August 2026 the Zcash profile was corrected. A news article carrying four load-bearing citations stopped being readable to automated checks, so the index repointed at the Zcash protocol specifications. Those show the quantum recovery path activated on mainnet in July rather than pending. No score changed. The recovery covers only funds moved into one pool. ### [A stale chain count was corrected, and news posts came under the claims guard on 19 August 2026](https://hardyindex.com/news/stale-chain-count-corrected-and-news-posts-brought-under-the-claims-guard.md) What changed, published 13 September 2026. On 19 August 2026 we corrected a post that said coverage had reached 25 chains when the index already held 31, and we extended the claims guard to read news posts. No rating changed. Monero, Mochimo and QRL keep the ratings the dataset shows below. A wrong sentence in a post is now a failed build. ### [Correction: four claims comparing one chain to the whole index were wrong](https://hardyindex.com/news/four-comparative-claims-corrected-across-four-chains.md) What changed, published 2 September 2026. Four sentences comparing one chain to the rest of the index had stopped being true. QRL, Mochimo, Nervos CKB and Solana all had that comparative prose corrected. No score and no tier changed for any of them. The fix is to wording, plus a build check that now re-verifies claims like these. ### [MemeCore's consensus citation now points at a page we can actually read](https://hardyindex.com/news/memecore-consensus-citation-repointed.md) What changed, published 31 August 2026. We've repointed MemeCore's consensus citation to a version of the launch release we can actually read, and withdrawn two claims that don't appear in it: real-time election of the top seven validators, and a validator set refreshing about every seventy seconds. No score changed. The rating still rests on verifiable detail. ### [Four layer 1s enter the index, and one is held back for want of a readable source](https://hardyindex.com/news/four-layer-1s-added-under-the-coverage-rule.md) What changed, published 30 August 2026. Internet Computer, Bittensor, Cronos and MemeCore are now rated. All four are Exposed: none has published a post-quantum roadmap, proposal or research programme covering its own signatures. Nothing about these networks changed this month. What changed is that we looked, and the absence of a plan is the finding. ### [NEAR Protocol joins the index with ML-DSA-65 live on mainnet](https://hardyindex.com/news/near-protocol-joins-index-ml-dsa-65-access-keys.md) What changed, published 26 August 2026. NEAR Protocol enters the index as the highest scoring chain that was not post-quantum from its first block. The nearcore 2.13.0 release stabilised ML-DSA-65 as a third transaction-signature and access-key scheme on mainnet. It is optional. Ed25519 and secp256k1 stay valid, so most accounts remain quantum-vulnerable until their owners rotate. ### [Bitcoin Cash entered the index above Bitcoin, and the gap needs explaining](https://hardyindex.com/news/bitcoin-cash-quantumroot-vaults-mainnet-coverage.md) What changed, published 25 August 2026. Bitcoin Cash entered the index on 16 August 2026, rated well above Bitcoin. Nothing changed in either chain's signature scheme: both still sign with ECDSA and Schnorr on secp256k1. What moved the placement is a mainnet vault template that verifies a post-quantum signature inside Bitcoin Script. It is opt-in, not a default. ### [Tron's Falcon-512 is live on Nile, and our profile was two months behind it](https://hardyindex.com/news/tron-falcon-512-live-on-nile-testnet.md) Why it moved, published 21 August 2026. Tron's score rose on 15 August because four dimensions had been scored on stale evidence. TIP-899 specifies Falcon-512 and ML-DSA-44, and Falcon-512 is activated on the public Nile testnet. Signature, NIST alignment, migration and verification all moved up. The tier does not move, because there's still no funded roadmap with public dates. ### [IOTA moved down after a search for layer-1 quantum work came up empty](https://hardyindex.com/news/iota-layer-1-signature-scheme-review.md) Why it moved, published 20 August 2026. IOTA now sits at Tier 5 in the index. On 15 August a search of the iotaledger improvement-proposal and node repositories returned no quantum-related item aimed at layer-1 signatures, so the deployment dimension fell by one point. Nothing about IOTA's code changed then. Only our reading of the evidence did. ### [Monero and Mochimo joined the index on 13 August 2026](https://hardyindex.com/news/monero-and-mochimo-join-the-index.md) What changed, published 19 August 2026. Monero and Mochimo were added to the Hardy Index on 13 August 2026, which took coverage to 25 chains on that date; it now holds 31. Monero entered as the tenth largest layer 1, with funded post-quantum research but no chosen scheme. Mochimo entered with hash-based signing verified in its node source. Neither rating is a forecast. ### [Correction: exposure citations for Bitcoin and Cardano now point at primary sources](https://hardyindex.com/news/bitcoin-cardano-exposure-citations-repointed.md) What changed, published 18 August 2026. No score moved. On 13 August we repointed two of them. Bitcoin's exposure dimension had cited a Forbes write-up of a Deloitte study and now cites Deloitte directly. Cardano's exposure dimension cited an Input Output announcement for address-model claims it never makes, and now cites CIP-19. One unmeasured claim about how much ADA has moved was removed, not resourced. ### [Correction: Cardano's D3.1 deliverable is a SIP, not a CIP](https://hardyindex.com/news/cardano-d3-1-deliverable-named-sip.md) What changed, published 15 August 2026. On 13 August we corrected Cardano's profile, which said research deliverable D3.1 would publish a migration strategy as a Cardano Improvement Proposal. Input Output's own wording calls it a SIP. The profile and roadmap now use the source's term. This is a naming correction only: no score, tier or evidence changed, and no code moved. ### [Algorand just shipped the thing we said to watch for](https://hardyindex.com/news/algorand-native-falcon-accounts-ship.md) Why it moved, published 13 August 2026. Algorand's signature score moved from 8 to 9 today. The go-algorand 5.0.0 consensus release shipped native Falcon-1024 account signatures, post-quantum delegated LogicSigs and key management tooling. Ordinary holders can now use a post-quantum account type natively rather than through a workaround. Ed25519 remains the default, which is why this is not a 10. ### [How Algorand became one of the few chains shipping post-quantum defences](https://hardyindex.com/news/algorand-falcon-shipped.md) Readiness history, published 12 August 2026. Algorand has run Falcon, a NIST-selected post-quantum signature scheme, on mainnet since 2022, and native Falcon-1024 accounts arrived in the consensus release of August 2026. Standard accounts still default to Ed25519 and the post-quantum type is opt-in, so broad resilience, targeted for the end of 2027, is not here yet. ### [What Bitcoin is, and is not, doing about quantum](https://hardyindex.com/news/bitcoin-bip-360-reality.md) Readiness history, published 12 August 2026. Bitcoin has no post-quantum defence deployed today. It signs with ECDSA and Schnorr on secp256k1, both breakable by Shor's algorithm. Two proposals exist, BIP-360 and BIP-361, and both are drafts. Neither introduces a post-quantum signature scheme, which is the detail most coverage of BIP-360 gets wrong. ### [The big chains where the question was asked and never answered](https://hardyindex.com/news/exposed-majors-no-public-plan.md) Readiness history, published 12 August 2026. Dogecoin and Litecoin both sign with ECDSA on secp256k1, inherited from Bitcoin, and neither has an adopted post-quantum plan. On Dogecoin the question was formally raised in its own issue tracker in June 2021 and closed without an implementation. As of August 2026 we found no dated commitment for either. ### [Why we rate IOTA Tier 5 when much of the market still calls it quantum-safe](https://hardyindex.com/news/iota-quantum-safe-reputation.md) Readiness history, published 12 August 2026. No. IOTA's layer 1 has not been quantum-resistant since April 2021, when the Chrysalis upgrade replaced its hash-based Winternitz signatures with Ed25519. IOTA does run post-quantum algorithms today, but inside IOTA Identity, protecting credentials rather than tokens. The reputation is real. It just describes a scheme IOTA removed five years ago. ### [The quiet chain that already ships a post-quantum signature](https://hardyindex.com/news/nervos-ckb-sphincs-plus-on-mainnet.md) Readiness history, published 12 August 2026. Nervos CKB has a SPHINCS+ lock script deployed on mainnet, audited by ScaleBit, supporting all twelve parameter sets in the NIST FIPS 205 standard. It is opt-in rather than default, so most funds still sit behind secp256k1, but the protection is real, shipped and usable today rather than promised. ### [The chain that was quantum-resistant before it was a headline](https://hardyindex.com/news/qrl-native-original.md) Readiness history, published 12 August 2026. QRL has required XMSS, a hash-based signature scheme, for every account since its mainnet launched in June 2018. Nothing was retrofitted and nothing is opt-in. The cost of that purity is stateful key management and large signatures, and the successor chain running NIST-standardised ML-DSA still has no published mainnet date. --- The ranked benchmark itself is at https://hardyindex.com/index.md. Every rating change is recorded at https://hardyindex.com/changelog.md.