Ripple said it's targeting to have the XRP Ledger quantum-ready by 2028.
The company said that even though assets are not at risk presently, "the threat has moved from theoretical to credible, and preparation timelines now matter."
Researchers at Google Quantum AI recently triggered a fresh round of debate with a new paper. Ripple's plans to prepare the XRP Ledger for potential advancements in quantum computing come amid concerns that technological leaps in the area could one day put the cryptography securing digital assets safe at risk.
"There's a more subtle risk too, one researchers call 'harvest now, decrypt later.' In simple terms, bad actors can collect publicly visible cryptographic data from the blockchain today and hold onto it, waiting for quantum hardware to mature enough to crack it and access the assets behind it," Ripple said in Monday's announcement.
"The findings don’t point to an immediate break," the company added. "But they do make it clear that systems securing long-lived value need to start planning for a post-quantum transition."
While some industry leaders are in agreement with the severity of the risks posed by quantum computing, others, like Strategy's Michael Saylor, have downplayed the threat. Bernstein called quantum risk a "manageable upgrade cycle."
Last week, Tron founder Justin Sun said the blockchain he helped build is also taking steps to head off future technical threats posed by quantum computing.
Ripple also made the case on Monday that the XRP Ledger blockchain is better prepared than other blockchains, including Ethereum.
"XRPL supports native key rotation, which means users can move away from potentially vulnerable keys over time without needing to change their underlying accounts," Ripple said. "This stands in contrast to most other blockchains, including Ethereum, where no protocol native equivalent exists."
The XRP Ledger is a public blockchain first launched in 2012, and Ripple is its principal contributor. XRP, the fourth-largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of about $100 billion, is the native token of the XRP Ledger network.
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