# NEAR Protocol (NEAR) Quantum Readiness Report

> NEAR Protocol has a QRI score of 42.75/100 and is assessed at Stage 3 (Migration Live) with medium evidence confidence.

Evaluation date: 2026-07-25. Review status: draft. Evaluated scope: Native asset (NEAR) on NEAR Protocol mainnet, protocol version 86 (upgrade 2.13), including base-layer accounts, consensus, P2P, and Chain Signatures MPC cross-chain infrastructure.

NEAR Protocol activated mainnet upgrade 2.13 on July 20, 2026, adding NIST-standardized FIPS-204 (ML-DSA-65) as an optional third signature scheme for account spend authorization alongside Ed25519 and secp256k1. NEAR's decoupled account model—human-readable account IDs with rotatable access keys—is a genuine structural advantage that enables single-transaction key rotation without address migration. However, as of the evaluation date (2026-07-25, ~5 days post-upgrade), migration coverage is effectively zero, default signing remains Ed25519 (quantum-vulnerable), users can still create new classical-only accounts by default, and no enforcement or deprecation mechanism exists for unmigrated keys. Critically, consensus/validator authentication remains Ed25519-only with no PQ path, and the Chain Signatures MPC cross-chain infrastructure (serving 35+ chains) uses classical threshold cryptography with post-quantum MPC still in research. No independent audit of the ML-DSA implementation has been identified. The QRI Score of 43 reflects optional mainnet PQ spend authorization (Stage 3: Migration Live) capped at 70 by vulnerable consensus and further constrained by near-zero migration coverage, absent consensus protection, and unverified implementation assurance.

## Core resources

- [NEAR Protocol QRI report](https://qrindex.org/projects/near/): Human-readable assessment with score, stage, evidence, blockers, risks, and assurance notes.
- [NEAR Protocol structured report data](https://qrindex.org/projects/near/report.json): Complete report as JSON for deterministic machine processing.
- [QRI methodology](https://qrindex.org/methodology/): Scoring model, evidence handling, readiness stages, confidence, assurance, and report status.
- [All QRI project reports](https://qrindex.org/llms.txt): Score-ranked index of every published project assessment.
- [NEAR Protocol official website](https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/near): Project-maintained website.



## Evidence sources

- [Evidence source 1](<https://www.near.org/blog/making-near-protocol-post-quantum-safe>): Public source cited by the NEAR Protocol QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 2](<https://near.org/blog/how-the-near-one-and-near-intents-teams-are-making-near-protocol-post-quantum>): Public source cited by the NEAR Protocol QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 3](<https://github.com/near/nearcore>): Public source cited by the NEAR Protocol QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 4](<https://nomicon.io/Network/>): Public source cited by the NEAR Protocol QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 5](<https://github.com/near/nearcore/blob/master/docs/architecture/how/post_quantum_signatures.md>): Public source cited by the NEAR Protocol QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 6](<https://github.com/near/nearcore/releases/tag/2.13.0>): Public source cited by the NEAR Protocol QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 7](<https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/near-protocol-brings-quantum-safe-signing-to-mainnet-302829646.html>): Public source cited by the NEAR Protocol QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 8](<https://github.com/near/nearcore/commit/7b3c1a3838eb45aa0a57b1c2851ce79a594cd755>): Public source cited by the NEAR Protocol QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 9](<https://docs.near.org/>): Public source cited by the NEAR Protocol QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 10](<https://near.github.io/nearcore/ChainSpec/Consensus.html>): Public source cited by the NEAR Protocol QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 11](<https://qrindex.org/projects/near/>): Public source cited by the NEAR Protocol QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 12](<https://nomicon.io/>): Public source cited by the NEAR Protocol QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 13](<https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/fips/204/final>): Public source cited by the NEAR Protocol QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 14](<https://github.com/near/nearcore/pull/15731>): Public source cited by the NEAR Protocol QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 15](<https://github.com/near/nearcore/commit/ab0dc49772a4a152fe15a77d273c2b2b19260906>): Public source cited by the NEAR Protocol QRI assessment.