Aptos AIP-137: The Quantum-Proof Blockchain That Wall Street Isn’t Ready For

Aptos just dropped the crypto equivalent of a bomb shelter blueprint—and the timing couldn't be more perfect.

While traditional finance scrambles to patch legacy systems, the AIP-137 proposal outlines how Aptos is building cryptographic defenses that quantum computers can't crack. This isn't theoretical future-proofing; it's active engineering against an existential threat most chains are pretending doesn't exist.

The Clock Is Ticking Faster Than You Think

Quantum computing isn't some distant sci-fi plot. Major breakthroughs are accelerating timelines, putting every blockchain's signature scheme on borrowed time. Aptos isn't waiting for the attack to happen. The proposal details a migration path to post-quantum cryptography—replacing the mathematical locks that quantum machines could pick with new, quantum-resistant algorithms.

Building the Fortress, Brick by Brick

The plan isn't a simple swap. It's a layered architecture overhaul. Think of it as retrofitting a skyscraper's foundation while it's still occupied. The proposal mandates backward compatibility, ensuring current assets and applications remain secure during the transition. It also establishes a governance framework for future cryptographic upgrades, turning a one-time fix into a permanent adaptive capability.

Why This Makes TradFi Sweat

Here's the cynical finance jab: Your bank's 'state-of-the-art' security relies on math that a sufficiently advanced quantum machine could unravel in hours. They're stuck in multi-year committee reviews while Aptos can execute a network-wide cryptographic upgrade via decentralized governance. The agility gap isn't just wide—it's becoming a chasm.

Aptos isn't just preparing for the quantum era. It's forcing the entire digital asset space to confront a deadline. Ignore this upgrade, and you're betting against physics itself.

AIP-137 Introduces SLH-DSA-SHA2-128s Support

AIP-137, in essence, proposes to add support for SLH-DSA-SHA2-128s, which is a stateless hash-based signature scheme and is standardized as FIPS 205.

SLH-DSA is derived from SPHINCS+, which is based on SHA-256. SHA-256 is already widely used within the Aptos framework for transaction hashing and data commitment.

There are minimal additional assumptions. If SLH-DSA fails, this WOULD imply there is a flaw in SHA-256. The plan doesn’t force any change to a new technology. People are free to continue using Ed25519 as the default.

New post-quantum signature schemes will be an add-on feature, to be switched on and only controlled by users who need better long-term security.

The plan takes a cautious stance and doesn’t try to foresee how soon a quantum computer that can break cryptography might emerge, whether this is in five years or fifty.

Aptos Chooses Security-First Approach in Early Stage

AIP-137 options have obvious trade-offs. Compared with Ed25519, the signature sizes of SLH-DSA are much larger, with a difference of around 82 times. The verification time is also longer.

For the x86_64 platform, the verification of the post-quantum signature takes several hundred microseconds, which is around 4.8 times longer than the previous approach. Future increased demand may lead to network traffic and a slight congestion problem.

Although it will have its own set of expenses, only a few users with security demands, for instance, organizations or applications, are projected to adopt the use of post-quantum accounts.