Written by Abhishek Chauhan

QuantumLayer is a next-generation, post-quantum secure blockchain protocol designed for maximum security, scalability, and formal verifiability. This whitepaper details its architecture, cryptographic foundations, consensus, tokenomics, and performance—establishing QuantumLayer as a trusted backbone for the quantum era of Web3.

1. Abstract
2. Introduction
   • 2.1 Motivation
   • 2.2 Objectives and Contributions
   • 2.3 Structure of the Paper
3. Background
   • 3.1 The Quantum Threat: Formal Statement
   • 3.2 Post-Quantum Hardness: SIS and LWE
   • 3.3 References and Formal Results
   • 3.4 Summary
4. System Model and Security Assumptions
   • 4.1 System Participants
   • 4.2 Network Model
   • 4.3 Adversarial Model
   • 4.4 Fault Tolerance and Safety
   • 4.5 State and Ledger Representation
   • 4.6 Cryptographic Parameters
   • 4.7 Notation Summary
5. Architecture
   • 5.1 High-Level Overview
   • 5.2 Core Modules
   • 5.3 Technical Interfaces and Extensibility
   • 5.4 Security-by-Design
   • 5.5 Summary Table: Key Architectural Features
6. Consensus Protocol
   • 6.1 Overview
   • 6.2 Protocol Definitions
   • 6.3 Protocol Steps
   • 6.4 Proposer Selection
   • 6.5 Signature Aggregation and Verification
   • 6.6 Safety and Liveness Analysis
   • 6.7 Handling Byzantine Behavior
   • 6.8 Block Finality and Fork Choice
   • 6.9 Dilithium Parameters and Overheads
   • 6.10 Protocol Upgradeability
   • 6.11 Formal Protocol Specification
     • 6.11.1 State Transition Table
     • 6.11.2 TLA+ Specification (Excerpt)
7. Transaction Lifecycle
8. Cryptographic Details
9. Smart Contract Platform
10. Interoperability
11. Tokenomics & Economics
12. Governance
13. Security Analysis
14. Performance & Benchmarking
    • 14.1 Performance Objectives
    • 14.2 Consensus and Block Parameters
    • 14.3 Transaction Throughput
    • 14.4 Latency
    • 14.5 Signature Verification Performance
    • 14.6 Node Hardware Requirements
    • 14.7 Network Scalability and Decentralization
    • 14.8 Comparative Performance
    • 14.9 Optimization and Future Roadmap
15. Upgradability & Roadmap
16. Ecosystem & Use Cases
17. Conclusion
18. References

QuantumLayer is a next-generation, post-quantum secure Layer 1 blockchain protocol architected to withstand both classical and quantum adversaries. Built upon a custom fork of the Cosmos SDK and Tendermint consensus engine, QuantumLayer exclusively utilizes CRYSTALS-Dilithium digital signatures for all transactions, validator messages, and account authentication—establishing a new global standard for cryptographic resilience.

The protocol features a highly modular architecture: a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus layer, a CosmWasm-powered smart contract engine, native cross-chain interoperability (IBC), and robust on-chain governance mechanisms. QuantumLayer supports the rapid development of decentralized applications (dApps) across DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, and enterprise domains—without sacrificing security, scalability, or composability.

This paper presents a formal description of QuantumLayer’s system model, consensus protocol, cryptographic primitives, tokenomics, and security guarantees. We analyze network performance, threat models, economic incentives, and demonstrate that QuantumLayer achieves provable safety, liveness, and post-quantum security under standard cryptographic assumptions. By providing a secure, developer-friendly foundation for the quantum era, QuantumLayer aims to be the trusted backbone for the next evolution of Web3.

This document is for research and informational purposes only. It does not constitute legal, investment, or financial advice. Protocol parameters, designs, and claims are subject to change. Use at your own risk.

The rapid progress in quantum computing poses a fundamental threat to public-key cryptosystems that secure nearly all modern blockchains. Algorithms such as Shor’s enable quantum adversaries to efficiently break elliptic curve cryptography—including ECDSA and Ed25519—undermining the security and trustworthiness of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and nearly every existing public chain. With NIST and global agencies actively standardizing post-quantum cryptography (PQC), the migration to quantum-resistant protocols has become not just desirable, but necessary.

Despite the existential risk, no production Layer 1 blockchain has yet adopted a post-quantum secure digital signature scheme as its core authentication primitive. The Web3 ecosystem requires an urgent paradigm shift: a general-purpose, modular, and high-performance protocol that is provably resilient against both classical and quantum attacks.

QuantumLayer is designed to address this critical gap in blockchain security and infrastructure. The primary objectives and contributions of QuantumLayer include:

• Native Post-Quantum Security:
  QuantumLayer exclusively employs CRYSTALS-Dilithium, a lattice-based signature scheme chosen by NIST for standardization, for all account, transaction, and validator authentication.

• Modular Cosmos-Based Architecture:
  QuantumLayer extends the Cosmos SDK and Tendermint consensus engine, enabling high performance, deterministic finality, and cross-chain interoperability via IBC.

• Smart Contract Platform:
  CosmWasm support allows developers to deploy secure, upgradeable, and composable smart contracts in Rust/WASM, expanding the range of possible dApps—from DeFi and NFTs to institutional registries and gaming.

• Open Governance and Sustainable Economics:
  The protocol implements a DAO-based on-chain governance system, robust validator and delegator incentives, and transparent treasury management using the $QNTM token.

• Formal Specification and Security Guarantees:
  This whitepaper provides a formal system model, protocol description, cryptographic assumptions, and security analysis for both classical and quantum adversaries.

The remainder of this document is organized as follows:

• Section 3 reviews relevant cryptographic background and related work in post-quantum secure blockchains.
• Section 4 formalizes the system and adversarial model.
• Section 5 presents the architecture and modular components of QuantumLayer.
• Section 6 defines the consensus protocol and validator workflow.
• Section 7 details the transaction lifecycle.
• Section 8 explores the cryptographic primitives, including Dilithium key management and implementation.
• Section 9 describes the smart contract platform and future extension plans.
• Section 10 discusses interoperability, IBC integration, and bridge architecture.
• Section 11 provides a comprehensive economic and tokenomic model.
• Section 12 outlines governance and upgrade mechanisms.
• Section 13 presents security analysis, formal proofs, and mitigations.
• Section 14 reviews performance benchmarks and node requirements.
• Section 15 discusses upgradeability and the long-term roadmap.
• Section 16 details ecosystem use cases and community incentives.
• Section 17 concludes.
• Section 18 lists references and formal definitions.

Let $\mathcal{A}_Q$ be a quantum polynomial-time adversary.

The security of ECDSA and Ed25519 relies on the hardness of the Elliptic Curve Discrete Logarithm Problem (ECDLP):

Definition: Given a point $P$ and $Q = xP$ on an elliptic curve, recover $x$.

Classically, best-known algorithms require exponential time in the field size. However, as shown by [Shor, 1994], a quantum computer can solve the discrete logarithm problem efficiently:

$$ \text{There exists a quantum polynomial-time algorithm that solves the discrete logarithm problem.} $$

Theorem:
For all elliptic curve groups $(G, +)$ of order $n$, and for all $Q = xP$, given $(P, Q)$, there exists a quantum circuit of size $O((\log n)^2 \log \log n)$ that computes $x$ in $O((\log n)^2 \log \log n)$ time.

Proof Sketch:
Shor’s algorithm reduces the discrete logarithm problem to period finding, efficiently solvable via the quantum Fourier transform.
Therefore,

$$ \Pr[\mathcal{A}_Q \text{ breaks ECDSA/Ed25519}] = 1 \text{ (in polynomial time, given a large enough quantum computer).} $$

If $\mathcal{A}_Q$ can obtain a public key $pk$ on a blockchain, it can recover the corresponding private key $sk$, forge signatures, steal assets, and rewrite chain history—completely undermining security.

Definition (SIS): Given a uniformly random matrix $A \in \mathbb{Z}_q^{n \times m}$, find a non-zero integer vector $z \in \mathbb{Z}^m$ such that $A z = 0 \mod q$ and $|z| \leq \beta$ for some small norm $\beta$.

Definition (LWE): Given $(A, b = A s + e \mod q)$ for secret $s \in \mathbb{Z}_q^n$, $A \in \mathbb{Z}_q^{m \times n}$, and small error vector $e$, recover $s$.

Both SIS and LWE are believed to be hard for quantum computers ([Regev, 2005]), and form the basis of the security of lattice-based schemes, including CRYSTALS-Dilithium.

Theorem ([Lyu et al., 2018]):
If there exists a quantum polynomial-time adversary $\mathcal{A}_Q$ who can forge CRYSTALS-Dilithium signatures with non-negligible probability, then there exists a quantum algorithm that solves the underlying SIS instance with non-negligible probability.

Proof Sketch:
The unforgeability of Dilithium is proven via a sequence of games, ultimately reducing forgery to the ability to solve an instance of SIS, which is conjectured to be hard even for quantum computers.

• ECDSA/Ed25519: Broken in polynomial time by Shor’s algorithm.
• CRYSTALS-Dilithium: At NIST security level 2, estimated >$2^{100}$ quantum operations required to break SIS (practically infeasible).

• Shor, P. W. “Algorithms for quantum computation: discrete logarithms and factoring.” FOCS 1994.
• Regev, O. “On lattices, learning with errors, random linear codes, and cryptography.” JACM 2009.
• Lyu et al., “CRYSTALS–Dilithium: A Lattice-Based Digital Signature Scheme.”
• NIST PQC Standardization Project.

The classical cryptographic primitives securing all major blockchains are provably breakable by sufficiently powerful quantum computers, as established by Shor’s algorithm. In contrast, lattice-based constructions (SIS, LWE) remain quantum-resistant under current knowledge, and are the foundation for CRYSTALS-Dilithium—justifying its use as the native signature scheme in QuantumLayer.

QuantumLayer consists of the following principal actors:

• Validators ($\mathcal{V}$): Nodes participating in consensus, proposing and validating blocks.
• Full Nodes: Replicate the blockchain state, verify blocks/transactions, but do not participate in consensus.
• Clients/Users: Initiate transactions, interact with smart contracts, hold Dilithium keypairs.
• Relayers: Facilitate cross-chain communication via IBC or bridges.

• The protocol operates over a partially synchronous peer-to-peer (P2P) network, modeled as a dynamically changing, undirected communication graph $G_t = (N_t, E_t)$, where $N_t$ is the set of online nodes at time $t$, and $E_t$ the available communication links.
• Message delivery between honest nodes is guaranteed within a known bound $\Delta$ during periods of synchrony. The system may experience periods of asynchrony (unbounded message delay), but these are assumed to be temporary.

Definition (Network Synchrony):
For any two honest nodes $i, j$, any message sent at time $t$ is delivered by $t + \Delta$ during periods of synchrony.

• The adversary $\mathcal{A}$ is Byzantine: it can corrupt up to $f < \frac{N}{3}$ validators at any given time, where $N$ is the total validator set size.
• Corrupted validators may behave arbitrarily, including deviating from protocol, equivocation (double-voting), censorship, or collusion.

• The adversary $\mathcal{A}_Q$ is additionally equipped with a quantum computer and can run quantum polynomial-time algorithms (e.g., Shor’s, Grover’s).
• $\mathcal{A}_Q$ can observe all public communications, schedule message delivery among controlled nodes, and adaptively corrupt validators.

• The cryptographic primitives (Dilithium signatures, hash functions) are secure against quantum attacks, i.e., no quantum polynomial-time adversary can forge a valid Dilithium signature or find hash collisions except with negligible probability in the security parameter $\lambda$.

• The protocol is designed to tolerate up to $f < \frac{N}{3}$ Byzantine validators without loss of safety (no two honest validators finalize conflicting blocks) or liveness (honest validators can always make progress under network synchrony).
• Assumption: The validator set is sufficiently decentralized, and key management is robust against mass key compromise.

At any time $t$, the global blockchain state $S_t$ is defined as:

$$ S_t = (\mathcal{L}_t, \mathcal{V}_t, \mathcal{C}_t) $$

where:

• $\mathcal{L}_t$: The ledger state, mapping account addresses to balances and contract storage.
• $\mathcal{V}_t$: The current validator set, with associated stakes and Dilithium public keys.
• $\mathcal{C}_t$: The set of active smart contracts, including code and persistent state.

State Evolution:
The state transitions according to a deterministic state transition function $F$:

$$ S_{t+1} = F(S_t, B_t) $$

where $B_t$ is the set of valid, ordered transactions in block $t$.

• Security Parameter ($\lambda$): All cryptographic primitives are instantiated at NIST Level 2 or higher (e.g., Dilithium2).
• Hash Function: SHAKE-256 (quantum collision-resistant, used for address derivation and Merkle trees).
• Signature Scheme: CRYSTALS-Dilithium, as specified in Section 8.

This model provides the basis for protocol specification, safety, liveness, and security proofs in subsequent sections.

QuantumLayer is architected as a modular Layer 1 blockchain, enabling security, flexibility, and extensibility. The protocol consists of multiple interdependent layers and modules, each responsible for distinct aspects of consensus, execution, networking, and interoperability.

Figure 1: Modular Architecture Diagram

• Engine: Modified Tendermint BFT consensus, replacing all ECDSA/Ed25519 usage with CRYSTALS-Dilithium signatures.
• Validator Set Management: Each validator $v_i \in \mathcal{V}_t$ holds a unique Dilithium public key $pk_i$, used for block proposals, votes, and commits.
• Slashing & Rewards: Consensus incorporates economic penalties (slashing) and block rewards based on validator performance.

• Smart Contracts:
  • CosmWasm VM: Sandboxed, deterministic WASM runtime. Contracts written in Rust, with plans for AssemblyScript and Go support.
  • Transaction Processing: All user and contract interactions are validated and executed here, updating $\mathcal{L}_t$ and $\mathcal{C}_t$.
• Gas Accounting: Deterministic resource metering prevents denial-of-service and ensures termination.

• Merkleized State Tree:
  • Maintains account balances, contract storage, and validator sets.
  • State transitions are cryptographically committed and auditable.
• Storage Pruning & Snapshots:
  • Supports efficient light client proofs and state sync.

• P2P Transport:
  • Secure, authenticated gossip protocol for block and tx propagation.
  • Roadmap: PQC-secured handshake for node authentication.
• ABCI (Application Blockchain Interface):
  • Bridges consensus engine and application logic, ensuring modularity.
• gRPC & REST APIs:
  • Standardized interfaces for wallets, explorers, and external tools.

• IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication):
  • Enables QuantumLayer to connect with other Cosmos SDK chains and appchains.
  • PQC enhancements for relayers are planned.
• Bridges:
  • R&D for secure, trust-minimized bridges to non-Cosmos chains (Ethereum, Polkadot, etc.), with future support for Dilithium signatures in bridge logic.
• Appchain Framework:
  • Subnet/appchain modules for launching domain-specific chains.

• CLI Wallet:
  • Reference command-line wallet for keygen, signing, tx creation, staking, governance.
• Web Wallet (Roadmap):
  • Browser-based wallet with Dilithium key support (WebAssembly).
• SDKs:
  • TypeScript/JS, Go, and Rust SDKs for easy dApp integration and tooling.

• DAO Modules:
  • On-chain proposal and voting system for protocol upgrades, parameter changes, and treasury grants.
• Treasury:
  • $QNTM-funded, transparently managed, supports grants and ecosystem growth.

• Module Design:
  Each core component is an independent, upgradable module, supporting plug-and-play extensibility and protocol upgrades without requiring hard forks.
• Versioning and Upgrades:
  Protocol changes are managed by the on-chain governance process, supporting seamless network evolution and bug fixes.

• Post-Quantum Cryptography at Every Layer:
  All authentication and signature verification rely solely on CRYSTALS-Dilithium.
• Auditable Open-Source Codebase:
  All modules are open source and undergo rigorous third-party and community audit.

This architectural design establishes the foundation for a modular, quantum-secure, and composable blockchain protocol. Each layer’s design choices and interfaces are expanded upon in subsequent sections.

QuantumLayer adopts a modified Tendermint Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus protocol, customized to replace all classical signatures with CRYSTALS-Dilithium post-quantum digital signatures. This ensures safety, liveness, and rapid finality, while providing security even against quantum adversaries.

The protocol orchestrates a sequence of rounds. In each round, a validator is selected as proposer to assemble a block; all validators participate in voting (Prevote, Precommit) using Dilithium signatures. Consensus is reached and blocks are finalized if and only if at least $2/3$ of voting power signs off on a proposal.

• $N$: Total number of validators in current set $\mathcal{V}_t$.
• $f$: Maximum number of tolerated Byzantine validators, $f < \frac{N}{3}$.
• $pk_i$: Dilithium public key of validator $i$.
• $\sigma_i$: Dilithium signature from validator $i$.
• $B_r$: Block proposed in round $r$.
• $VP_i$: Voting power of validator $i$.
• $S$: The total voting power in $\mathcal{V}_t$.

Each block height proceeds in a series of rounds. Each round consists of:

1. Propose: Proposer $P_r$ assembles and broadcasts a candidate block $B_r$.
2. Prevote: Each validator $V_i$ validates $B_r$ and, if valid, broadcasts a Prevote message: $$ \text{Prevote}i = (\text{hash}(B_r), \sigma_i^{\text{Prevote}}) $$ where $\sigma_i^{\text{Prevote}} = \text{Sign}{\text{Dilithium}}(sk_i, \text{hash}(B_r) | "Prevote")$.
3. Precommit: If a validator observes at least $2/3$ of voting power in valid Prevote messages for $B_r$, it broadcasts a Precommit message: $$ \text{Precommit}i = (\text{hash}(B_r), \sigma_i^{\text{Precommit}}) $$ where $\sigma_i^{\text{Precommit}} = \text{Sign}{\text{Dilithium}}(sk_i, \text{hash}(B_r) | "Precommit")$.
4. Commit: Upon observing $2/3$+ Precommit messages for the same block, the block is finalized and committed.

for each block height h:
    r ← 0
    while not committed:
        P_r ← select_proposer(r, h)
        B_r ← P_r.propose_block()
        broadcast(B_r)

        for each validator V_i:
            if validate_block(B_r):
                σ_i_prev ← Sign_Dilithium(sk_i, hash(B_r) || "Prevote")
                broadcast(Prevote(hash(B_r), σ_i_prev))

        wait for Prevote messages
        if sum_voting_power(Prevotes for hash(B_r)) ≥ 2/3 S:
            σ_i_precommit ← Sign_Dilithium(sk_i, hash(B_r) || "Precommit")
            broadcast(Precommit(hash(B_r), σ_i_precommit))

        wait for Precommit messages
        if sum_voting_power(Precommits for hash(B_r)) ≥ 2/3 S:
            commit(B_r)
            break
        else:
            r ← r + 1

• The proposer for each round is selected deterministically, using a round-robin or weighted by voting power algorithm.
• This mechanism prevents grinding attacks and ensures that the opportunity to propose blocks is fairly distributed among validators.

QuantumLayer utilizes CRYSTALS-Dilithium for all validator and transaction signatures. Unlike BLS or Schnorr signatures, Dilithium does not natively support cryptographic signature aggregation due to its lattice-based construction. As a result, each consensus round includes a unique Dilithium signature from each participating validator, increasing block header size as the validator set grows.

To mitigate verification overhead, QuantumLayer implements optimized batch verification for Dilithium signatures at both the consensus and transaction layers. Internal testnet benchmarks demonstrate a 3.2x speedup when verifying batches of signatures versus individual checks.

Header Overhead Formula:

$$ \text{HeaderSize} = \sigma_{\text{proposer}} + \lceil \frac{2N}{3} \rceil \times \sigma_{\text{validator}} $$

where:

• $\sigma_{\text{proposer}}$ is the size of a single Dilithium signature (e.g., 2,420 bytes for Dilithium2).
• $N$ is the total number of validators.
• $\sigma_{\text{validator}}$ is the size of a validator's signature.

Example: For $N=100$ validators,

$$ \text{HeaderSize} = 2,420 + (67 \times 2,420) = 164,560 \text{ bytes} $$

While signature aggregation is not possible, the protocol roadmap includes research into PQ-safe signature compression and future quantum-friendly aggregation primitives. Meanwhile, batch verification and parallel processing on validator hardware ensure throughput remains high.

Theorem: If $f < N/3$, no two conflicting blocks can be finalized at the same height.

Proof Sketch:
Suppose two conflicting blocks $B$ and $B'$ are both committed. Each must have received at least $2/3$ of voting power in Precommit signatures. By the pigeonhole principle, there must be an overlap of at least $1/3$ of voting power signing both. This would require more than $f$ Byzantine validators, which contradicts the fault tolerance bound.

Theorem: If $f < N/3$ and the network is synchronous, a valid block will eventually be proposed, prevoted, precommitted, and committed.

Proof Sketch:
As long as honest validators control $>2/3$ of the voting power, honest proposals will gather the necessary prevotes and precommits and be committed, guaranteeing network liveness.

• Equivocation (Double-voting):
  Detected by observing conflicting Prevote or Precommit messages signed by the same validator for the same round and height. Offending validators are slashed according to protocol rules.
• Proposer Censorship:
  Proposers who systematically exclude valid transactions may be penalized through governance or slashing proposals.
• Validator Downtime:
  Validators who do not participate in consensus rounds for more than a specified threshold are considered offline and are slashed.

• Finality:
  Once a block is committed by $2/3$ of the voting power, it is considered final and irreversible in the honest majority case.
• Forks:
  Forks can only occur in periods of extreme network asynchrony or if more than $1/3$ of validators are Byzantine. The canonical chain is chosen by highest height and earliest commit time.

• QuantumLayer may instantiate Dilithium2 (NIST Security Level 2) for validator signatures, with $|\sigma| \approx 2,420$ bytes.
• Larger signatures impact bandwidth and block size, but can be mitigated via parallel signature verification, efficient gossip, and adaptive block sizing.
• Benchmarks demonstrate that QuantumLayer can maintain high throughput ($>$1,000 TPS) with commodity hardware (see Section 14).

• Consensus parameters such as block time, validator set size, slashing conditions, and cryptographic parameters are adjustable via on-chain governance (DAO) proposals.
• All changes are subject to protocol safety checks, public audit, and a time-locked upgrade schedule to minimize the risk of contentious or malicious upgrades.

To support formal verification and clarity, we provide both a state transition table and a TLA+ style excerpt for the QuantumLayer consensus protocol.

Below is an illustrative TLA+ style excerpt capturing the main state transitions in QuantumLayer’s BFT consensus protocol.

----------------------------- MODULE QuantumLayerConsensus -----------------------------

EXTENDS Naturals, Sequences

CONSTANTS
    N           \* Number of validators
    Quorum      \* Minimum voting power for commit (2/3 N)
    Validators  \* Set of all validators

VARIABLES
    height, round, state, blocks, votes, committed

Init ==
    /\ height = 0
    /\ round = 0
    /\ state = "Idle"
    /\ blocks = << >>
    /\ votes = << >>
    /\ committed = FALSE

Next ==
    \/ /\ state = "Idle"
       /\ \E proposer \in Validators:
           ProposeBlock(proposer, height, round)
       /\ state' = "ProposalBroadcast"
    \/ /\ state = "ProposalBroadcast"
       /\ \A v \in Validators:
           ReceiveProposal(v)
       /\ state' = "Prevote"
    \/ /\ state = "Prevote"
       /\ Cardinality(Prevotes(height, round)) >= Quorum
       /\ state' = "Precommit"
    \/ /\ state = "Precommit"
       /\ Cardinality(Precommits(height, round)) >= Quorum
       /\ state' = "Commit"
       /\ committed' = TRUE
    \/ /\ state \in {"Prevote", "Precommit"}
       /\ Timeout()
       /\ state' = "Idle"
       /\ round' = round + 1

=============================================================================

QuantumLayer adopts a stateful account model to optimize transaction size and improve network efficiency.

• First Transaction Per Account:
  The initial transaction from any new account must include the full Dilithium public key and signature tuple:

  $$ tx_0 = (m, \sigma, pk) $$

  • $m$: The transaction message (e.g., transfer, contract call, staking action)
  • $\sigma$: CRYSTALS-Dilithium digital signature on $m$
  • $pk$: Sender’s Dilithium public key

• Subsequent Transactions:
  Once an account has been established and its public key is on-chain, subsequent transactions may reference the on-chain account hash instead of resending the full public key, achieving up to 78% size reduction for common transactions: $$ tx = (m, \sigma, account_hash) $$

  • $account_hash$: A compact reference to the already-registered Dilithium public key

This optimization significantly reduces bandwidth and storage requirements, especially for high-frequency accounts.

Transaction Format Examples:

• Initial Transaction (Account Creation):

  {
    "type": "send",
    "from": "ql1xyz...",
    "to": "ql1abc...",
    "amount": 1000,
    "nonce": 0,
    "fee": 10,
    "data": "...",
    "sig": "b64-encoded-dilithium-sig",
    "pubkey": "b64-encoded-dilithium-pubkey"
  }

• Subsequent Transaction:

  {
    "type": "send",
    "from": "ql1xyz...",
    "to": "ql1abc...",
    "amount": 1000,
    "nonce": 1,
    "fee": 10,
    "data": "...",
    "sig": "b64-encoded-dilithium-sig",
    "account_hash": "b64-encoded-account-hash"
  }

Impact:

• Initial transaction: Full authentication (public key + signature) for new accounts
• All following transactions: Reference to existing account, with only signature included
• Result: Up to 78% reduction in transaction size and network usage per account

This account model maintains strong security guarantees while enabling QuantumLayer to scale efficiently, handle high transaction volumes, and support lightweight clients.

1. Creation:
   • Users generate and sign transactions using their wallet or dApp, yielding a tuple $(m, \sigma, pk)$.
2. Broadcast:
   • Transactions are sent to the local node, which then propagates them across the peer-to-peer network.
3. Mempool Admission:
   • Each node checks the transaction’s syntax, signature, nonce, and sufficiency of balance/fees before adding $tx$ to the mempool.

• The mempool maintains a prioritized queue of pending transactions, sorted by gas price and arrival time.
• Invalid, malformed, or expired transactions are pruned routinely.
• Per-account transaction count and mempool size are limited to prevent spam and DoS.

1. Block Proposal:
   • The round’s proposer selects transactions from the mempool up to the block’s gas and size limits.
2. Block Structure:
   • Each block $B$ comprises: $$ B = { \text{header}, [tx_1, tx_2, ..., tx_n], \text{proposer sig}, \text{validator sigs} } $$
3. Consensus:
   • Proposed blocks are subject to the consensus protocol (see Section 6).

For each transaction included in a block:

• Signature Check: $$ \text{Verify}_{\text{Dilithium}}(pk, m, \sigma) = 1 $$
• Nonce Check:
  Transaction nonce must match the expected account nonce to prevent replay.
• Balance Check:
  The sender’s account must have enough $QNTM$ for the amount and fees.
• Contract/State Checks:
  For contract calls, execution preconditions are enforced in the CosmWasm VM.

• Valid transactions are executed sequentially, updating account balances, contract state, and validator metadata.
• The global state evolves as: $$ S_{t+1} = F(S_t, [tx_1, tx_2, ..., tx_n]) $$ where $F$ is the deterministic state transition function.

• Each transaction yields a receipt containing:
  • Success or failure status
  • Gas used
  • Output or return value (if applicable)
  • Events/logs (for contract interactions)
• Receipts and events are accessible to wallets, explorers, and dApps for transparency and auditing.

• Transactions included in a committed block are immediately final (subject to BFT guarantees; see Section 6).
• Applications may consider a transaction “confirmed” once its block is finalized by $2/3$ of validator voting power.

QuantumLayer supports the following native transaction types:

• Value Transfer: Sending $QNTM$ between accounts.
• Contract Execution: Calling CosmWasm smart contract functions.
• Staking Operations: Delegate/undelegate, validator creation, withdraw rewards.
• Governance: Propose, vote on, and execute governance proposals.
• IBC/Bridge: Cross-chain token transfers and messaging.

• Transactions specify a gas limit and gas price (denominated in $QNTM$).
• Validators may set a minimum gas price for inclusion.
• Proposers prioritize higher-fee transactions.
• Fee allocation: a portion to the block proposer, remainder distributed to validators/stakers and the DAO treasury.

QuantumLayer natively adopts the CRYSTALS-Dilithium digital signature algorithm, a lattice-based construction selected by NIST for post-quantum standardization.

• Short Integer Solution (SIS):
  Given a random matrix $A \in \mathbb{Z}_q^{n \times m}$, find a short nonzero vector $z \in \mathbb{Z}^m$ such that $Az = 0 \pmod{q}$ and $|z|$ is small.

• Learning With Errors (LWE):
  Given $A \in \mathbb{Z}_q^{m \times n}$ and $b = As + e$ for secret $s$ and small error $e$, recover $s$.

Both problems are conjectured to be hard, even for quantum computers. The unforgeability of Dilithium signatures is formally reduced to the hardness of SIS.

QuantumLayer defaults to Dilithium2 (NIST Level 2):

• Signature size: ~2,420 bytes
• Public key size: ~1,312 bytes
• Private key size: ~2,528 bytes
• Security: ≥ 100 bits (against quantum adversaries)

• Key Generation:
  $(pk, sk) \leftarrow \text{Dilithium.KeyGen}()$
• Signing:
  $\sigma \leftarrow \text{Dilithium.Sign}(sk, m)$
• Verification:
  Accept iff $\text{Dilithium.Verify}(pk, m, \sigma) = 1$

Note:
Dilithium does not natively support signature aggregation. QuantumLayer implements optimized batch verification, achieving up to a 3.2x speedup for validator signature checks (see Section 6.5).

Theorem ([Lyu et al., 2018]):
If a quantum polynomial-time adversary $\mathcal{A}_Q$ can forge Dilithium signatures with non-negligible probability, there exists a quantum algorithm that solves the underlying SIS instance with non-negligible probability.

• SHAKE-256:
  Used for address derivation, transaction/message hashing, and Merkle tree construction.
  • Output length parameterized by use-case.
  • Quantum-resistant collision probability.

• Account Address:

  $$ \text{addr} = \text{Bech32}(\text{SHAKE-256}(pk)) $$

  where $pk$ is the user’s Dilithium public key.

• Contract Address:
  Typically the hash of creator address and deployment nonce, mapped to Bech32 format.

• Consensus:
  All validator consensus messages (Prevote, Precommit, Proposal) must be signed with Dilithium and verified on receipt by all full nodes.
• Transactions:
  Every transaction is required to include a Dilithium signature over its payload and nonce.
• Smart Contracts:
  CosmWasm contracts have access to on-chain Dilithium verification precompiles, enabling secure authentication and cryptographic protocols at the contract layer.

• Wallet Key Storage:
  Private keys are generated and encrypted locally on the user’s device.
• Seed Phrase:
  24-word mnemonic (BIP39-compatible), with Dilithium-specific derivation path.
• Multisig & Threshold Support:
  Planned for protocol-level support (e.g., $k$-of-$n$ signature aggregation for institutional and DAO accounts).

• Parameter Upgrades:
  Security levels (Dilithium2, 3, 5) can be upgraded via governance to respond to advances in cryptanalysis.
• Algorithm Agility:
  Future support for alternative NIST PQC signature schemes (e.g., Falcon) can be added as protocol modules, with phased migration.

• Dilithium:
  Unforgeability under chosen-message attack (EUF-CMA), assuming SIS is hard for quantum adversaries.
• Hash Functions:
  Collision resistance under classical and quantum attacks, as provided by SHAKE-256.

• Libraries:
  • liboqs for C/Go integration.
  • pqcrypto for Rust/CosmWasm.
• Performance:
  Signature verification and aggregation are parallelizable; benchmarking is ongoing to maximize block throughput.
• Compression:
  On-wire signatures can use byte-packing and Merkleization to minimize network and block bloat.

This cryptographic design guarantees that all authentication, consensus, and smart contract operations on QuantumLayer are secure—both today and in a post-quantum future.

QuantumLayer integrates the CosmWasm virtual machine (VM) as its primary smart contract execution environment. CosmWasm is a deterministic, sandboxed WebAssembly (WASM) runtime, enabling contracts to be written in safe, modern languages—primarily Rust—and compiled to portable WASM bytecode.

Key Properties:

• Determinism: Contract execution yields the same result on all nodes, preventing consensus splits.
• Security: Sandboxed execution prevents contracts from accessing node internals or global state outside their scope.
• Resource Metering: Each contract invocation is metered by gas, ensuring fair use of network resources and mitigating DoS risk.
• Upgradeability: Supports contract migrations and upgrades, subject to governance or access control.

1. Development:
   Developers author smart contracts in Rust or compatible languages using the CosmWasm framework.
2. Compilation:
   Contracts are compiled to WASM bytecode, ensuring cross-platform portability and deterministic execution.
3. Deployment:
   Users or dApps submit deployment transactions containing the contract bytecode and initial parameters.
4. Instantiation:
   The deployed contract is initialized on-chain, with a unique address derived from the deployer’s address and deployment nonce.
5. Execution:
   Any user or contract may invoke contract functions by submitting execution transactions, specifying the target contract address, entry point, and arguments.

• Post-Quantum Authentication:
  Contracts can require that callers authenticate via Dilithium signatures; signature verification is available natively in CosmWasm.
• Access Control:
  Role-based and multi-signature access patterns are supported via contract logic.
• Upgradability:
  Contracts may support controlled migrations, governed either by contract-internal logic or DAO votes.
• Auditability:
  All contract code, calls, and state transitions are publicly visible, enabling community and formal audits.

• Token Standards:
  • Fungible tokens (CW20, akin to ERC-20)
  • Non-fungible tokens (CW721, akin to ERC-721)
  • Multi-token standards (CW1155)
• DAOs and Governance:
  • Treasury management, voting modules, on-chain proposals
• DeFi Primitives:
  • Decentralized exchanges (AMM), lending protocols, synthetic assets
• Identity and Access:
  • On-chain registries, verifiable credential anchors
• Cross-Contract Calls:
  • Contracts can securely call other contracts, enabling complex composability

• Signature Verification in WASM:
  CosmWasm exposes precompiled functions for Dilithium signature verification, allowing contracts to verify user or cross-chain messages securely.
• Native PQ Primitives:
  Roadmap includes exposing additional PQC primitives and supporting quantum-safe cryptographic schemes within contract logic.

• Migrations:
  Contracts can opt-in to allow upgrades via a defined migration entry point; migrations may be governed by contract logic or DAO voting.
• Security Controls:
  Only authorized signers or governance modules can initiate migration to prevent malicious upgrades.

• Resource Metering:
  Each instruction executed by a contract consumes a defined amount of gas. Contracts that run out of gas are halted, and changes are reverted.
• Fee Allocation:
  Collected gas fees are distributed to block proposers, validators, and the DAO treasury (see Section 11).

• SDKs and Templates:
  Comprehensive SDKs (TypeScript, Rust, Go) and contract templates are provided for rapid development.
• Local Testing:
  One-click localnet for contract deployment and testing before mainnet launch.
• Documentation:
  Full API reference, tutorials, and best practices.

This smart contract platform empowers developers to build secure, composable, and quantum-resistant applications across DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, and enterprise use cases. CosmWasm ensures that QuantumLayer contracts remain future-proof and developer-friendly.

QuantumLayer natively integrates the Cosmos Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol, enabling secure, permissionless interoperability with other IBC-enabled blockchains within the Cosmos ecosystem and beyond.

• IBC Module:
  Implements the IBC protocol for cross-chain token transfers, data messaging, and application-level interoperability.
• IBC Relayers:
  Off-chain agents that transmit packets between chains, with plans to support Dilithium-signed relayer authentication.
• Channel Establishment:
  Chains establish secure channels using mutually authenticated handshakes and state proofs.

• Dilithium Relayer Authentication (Planned):
  Upgrade IBC handshakes and relayer authentication to require CRYSTALS-Dilithium signatures, ensuring post-quantum security across chain boundaries.
• Quantum-Safe Light Clients:
  Future roadmap includes post-quantum light client verification for bridging to non-Cosmos chains.

• Cross-chain Token Transfers (ICS-20):
  Users can send $QNTM$ or any IBC-enabled asset to/from QuantumLayer seamlessly.
• Data Messaging and Contract Calls:
  Arbitrary data packets and contract invocations can be transmitted cross-chain, supporting composable dApps spanning multiple blockchains.

QuantumLayer is designed for extensibility, with planned support for secure bridges to major non-Cosmos ecosystems.

• External Bridge Modules:
  Pluggable modules interfacing with Ethereum, Polkadot, and other L1s.
• Quantum-Safe Bridge Validation:
  Where possible, bridge contracts and validators will require Dilithium signatures, making attacks by quantum adversaries impractical.

• Validator-Driven (Natively Verified):
  Prefer trust-minimized bridges validated by on-chain light clients and cryptographic proofs.
• Relayer-Driven (External Validators):
  Accept relayer or multisig signatures with post-quantum key support, subject to protocol and DAO governance.

• Ethereum Bridge (Planned):
  QuantumLayer <-> Ethereum bridge using quantum-safe threshold signatures or relay.
• Polkadot/Substrate Bridge:
  Integration with the Polkadot relay chain and parachains, using PQC-compatible cross-chain protocols.
• Other PQC L1s:
  Direct, trustless bridges to other post-quantum chains as standards evolve.

• Appchain Support:
  QuantumLayer provides a launchpad for application-specific subnets or "appchains" that inherit security, consensus, and interoperability features from the main chain.
• Custom IBC Channels:
  Appchains and partner networks can establish private IBC channels for high-throughput or domain-specific workloads.
• Governance Integration:
  Interchain proposals and governance votes are possible via IBC, supporting cross-chain DAOs and collaborative protocols.

• Replay Protection:
  All IBC and bridge messages include unique identifiers and sequence numbers to prevent replay attacks.
• Consensus Proofs:
  Cross-chain verification requires commitment proofs (Merkle, state proofs), supporting Dilithium-signed attestations for maximum security.
• Rate Limiting and Circuit Breakers:
  Built-in controls to prevent abuse, congestion, or denial-of-service via cross-chain messaging.

• Multi-Chain DeFi:
  Cross-chain swaps, asset transfers, and composable DeFi applications leveraging liquidity from multiple ecosystems.
• Omnichain NFTs:
  Creation, transfer, and trading of NFTs across different chains with provenance and authenticity.
• Cross-Chain Governance:
  Coordinated proposals, votes, and DAOs spanning several blockchains.
• Enterprise and Regulated Markets:
  Permissioned chains and private ledgers interoperating with the public QuantumLayer mainnet for compliance and reporting.

Through IBC, secure bridges, and appchain extensibility, QuantumLayer ensures that its ecosystem remains composable, scalable, and future-proof—enabling both Web3 innovation and institutional adoption.

$QNTM is the native utility, staking, and governance token of the QuantumLayer blockchain. It underpins all core economic and security mechanisms in the network.

• Staking: Secures the network by requiring validators and delegators to bond $QNTM$ tokens.
• Transaction Fees: All transactions, contract executions, and cross-chain operations pay fees in $QNTM$.
• Governance: $QNTM$ holders propose, vote on, and execute on-chain protocol upgrades, treasury spending, and system parameters.
• Incentives: Block rewards, staking rewards, developer grants, and ecosystem bounties are all distributed in $QNTM$.

At mainnet launch, the total supply is set to 1,000,000,000 $QNTM$ (1 billion tokens), allocated as follows:

• Annual Inflation Target: 5% (governance adjustable)
• Deflationary Mechanisms: A portion of transaction and contract fees may be burned or redirected to the DAO treasury.

• Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS): $QNTM$ holders may run validators or delegate tokens to existing validators.
• Validator Selection: Top N validators by stake are eligible to participate in consensus, with rotation and unbonding periods.
• Lock-up Period: All staked $QNTM$ is subject to a protocol-defined unbonding period (e.g., 21 days).

• Block Rewards: Each block mints new $QNTM$, split between proposer and voting validators.
• Distribution: $$ R_i = (1-\alpha)R \cdot \frac{s_i}{S} $$ where $R$ is total block reward, $\alpha$ is proposer share, $s_i$ is stake for validator $i$, $S$ is total bonded stake.

• Double Signing (Equivocation): Slashed by a protocol-defined percentage of staked $QNTM$.
• Downtime: Validators failing to sign or propose blocks within protocol thresholds are slashed and/or jailed.
• Misbehavior Reporting: All evidence is submitted on-chain and automatically enforced by the protocol.

• Fee Denomination: All fees are paid in $QNTM$.
• Fee Structure: Users specify a gas limit and gas price. Proposers prioritize higher-fee transactions.
• Fee Allocation: Fees are split among proposer, validator set, and DAO treasury.
• Fee Grants and Subsidies: The protocol supports sponsored/gasless transactions for onboarding or application-specific use cases.

• One Token, One Vote: $QNTM$ tokens determine voting power. Delegation is supported for representative democracy (liquid democracy).
• Proposal Lifecycle: Submit → Deposit → Vote → Tally → Execute
• Upgradable Parameters: All major economic, security, and protocol parameters are governed on-chain.

• DAO Treasury:
  Controlled by governance proposals, the treasury funds grants, audits, ecosystem development, and public goods.
• Transparency:
  All spending is recorded on-chain and auditable.

• Builder Grants: Awarded via on-chain proposals for protocol, dApp, and infrastructure contributions.
• Bug Bounties: Incentivize identification of vulnerabilities and protocol weaknesses.
• Community Rewards: Early users, testnet participants, and ambassadors are rewarded via airdrops and incentive programs.

• Sybil Resistance:
  High cost of stake and slashing penalties ensure only honest, well-incentivized actors control consensus.
• Bribery/Censorship Resistance:
  Economic and governance design discourages collusion and ensures minority protection.
• Parameter Adjustability:
  Inflation, reward split, slashing rates, and validator limits are all governance-adjustable, allowing dynamic tuning of security and growth incentives.

QuantumLayer’s $QNTM$ tokenomics are designed to maximize security, incentivize network participation, align long-term stakeholders, and fund sustainable ecosystem growth—all under the direction of open, on-chain governance.

QuantumLayer is governed by its community of $QNTM$ token holders, emphasizing decentralization, transparency, and protocol adaptability. All critical protocol upgrades, economic parameters, and treasury expenditures are controlled via open, on-chain governance processes.

The governance process proceeds through the following stages:

1. Proposal Submission:
   Any $QNTM$ holder can submit a governance proposal by depositing a minimum amount of tokens as collateral. The proposal includes executable messages or parameter changes.
2. Deposit Period:
   Other users may add deposits to reach the minimum threshold required for the proposal to proceed to voting.
3. Voting Period:
   Once the deposit threshold is met, the proposal enters a fixed voting period (e.g., 7–14 days). All staked $QNTM$ holders can vote "Yes," "No," "No with Veto," or "Abstain."
4. Tally and Resolution:
   After the voting period, votes are tallied. If quorum and required majority are reached, the proposal is executed. Failed proposals may have deposits burned or refunded, depending on voting outcome.

• Voting Power:
  Determined by the amount of staked $QNTM$ held or delegated to a given voter at the time of proposal snapshot.
• Delegation:
  Token holders may delegate voting power to representatives (validators or third parties), supporting a liquid democracy model.

• Parameter Change:
  Modify network parameters (e.g., inflation, block time, minimum gas price).
• Software Upgrade:
  Approve protocol upgrades; triggered by time-locked governance execution.
• Community Spend:
  Allocate DAO treasury funds for grants, audits, marketing, and ecosystem development.
• Text Proposals:
  Non-binding proposals for signaling or feedback.

• Treasury Funds:
  Accumulated via protocol inflation, transaction fees, slashing penalties, and airdrop clawbacks.
• Spending Control:
  All treasury expenditures require governance approval via proposals and on-chain voting.
• Transparency:
  All treasury transactions, balances, and recipient addresses are public and auditable.

• Time-Locked Execution:
  Approved upgrades are subject to a protocol-defined timelock before activation, allowing for network review and mitigation if necessary.
• Emergency Procedures:
  In the event of critical bugs or security incidents, the DAO may enact emergency parameter changes or protocol pauses by supermajority vote.
• Upgrade Path:
  All protocol upgrades are managed by on-chain governance, with no privileged admin keys or centralized authorities.

• Proposal Rewards:
  Submitters of successful proposals may be rewarded from the DAO treasury.
• Voter Incentives:
  Active participants in governance (especially those voting on critical or complex proposals) may receive rewards or reputation boosts.
• Participation Quorum:
  Minimum quorum and veto thresholds are enforced to ensure decisions reflect the will of an engaged community.

• Low Participation:
  Addressed by incentives, education, and outreach programs.
• Governance Attacks:
  Economic security is ensured via minimum deposit requirements, slashing for malicious proposals, and robust delegation mechanisms.
• Upgrade Safety:
  All upgrades are subject to external and community audits, timelocks, and rollback plans.

QuantumLayer’s governance design ensures that all protocol evolution is transparent, decentralized, and secure—aligning long-term community interests and minimizing centralized control.

QuantumLayer is designed to achieve the following core security properties, even against quantum-enabled adversaries:

• Authenticity: Only valid Dilithium signatures are accepted for all transactions and validator messages.
• Integrity: No unauthorized modification or forgery of blockchain state.
• Finality: Committed blocks are irreversible and cannot be reverted under the protocol's fault tolerance.
• Availability: The network remains operable and liveness is maintained except under catastrophic (exceeding $1/3$ Byzantine) failures.
• Post-Quantum Resilience: All critical cryptographic operations are secure against quantum attacks, subject to the hardness of SIS/LWE.

• Byzantine Adversary ($\mathcal{A}$):
  Controls up to $f &lt; \frac{N}{3}$ validators, can deviate arbitrarily, including equivocation, censorship, DoS, and collusion.
• Quantum-Enabled Adversary ($\mathcal{A}_Q$):
  Has access to polynomial-time quantum computation (e.g., Shor’s, Grover’s algorithms), but cannot efficiently solve SIS/LWE.
• Adaptive Corruption:
  May adaptively corrupt validators, schedule message delays, and attempt to exploit network asynchrony.

• Unforgeability:
  CRYSTALS-Dilithium signatures are EUF-CMA secure, assuming SIS is hard for quantum computers. Formally, $$ \Pr[\mathcal{A}_Q \text{ forges } \sigma \text{ on } m \notin Q] \leq \text{negl}(\lambda) $$ where $Q$ is the set of messages signed by honest parties, and $\lambda$ is the security parameter.

• Collision Resistance:
  SHAKE-256 is conjectured to be collision-resistant, with no known polynomial-time quantum attacks more effective than classical ones.

Theorem: If $f &lt; N/3$, no two honest validators can commit conflicting blocks at the same height.

Proof Sketch:
As established in Section 6, at least $2/3$ of voting power is required to commit a block. Two conflicting blocks would require at least $1/3$ overlap in voting power, exceeding the fault tolerance bound.

Theorem: If $f &lt; N/3$ and the network is synchronous, honest validators can always finalize new blocks.

Proof Sketch:
Honest proposers and validators always form a supermajority, ensuring that eventually a valid block is proposed, prevoted, and precommitted.

• ECDSA/Ed25519 Breakage:
  Irrelevant, as all signatures are Dilithium-based.
• Hash Preimage Attacks:
  SHAKE-256 provides $2^{128}$ quantum security margin (Grover’s).

• Equivocation (Double-Signing):
  Protocol slashes offending validator’s stake; equivocation proof is compact and verifiable on-chain.
• Censorship:
  Proposers or validators excluding valid transactions can be penalized via governance or slashing.

• Transaction Flooding:
  Controlled by per-node mempool limits, gas metering, and minimum fee requirements.
• Consensus DoS:
  Validators exhibiting repeated downtime are slashed and/or jailed.

Bridges represent a critical point of vulnerability for any blockchain ecosystem, especially in the context of quantum-enabled threats and large asset transfers. QuantumLayer implements several protocol-level measures to maximize the security and recoverability of cross-chain interactions:

• Protocol-Enforced Key Rotation:
  All bridge validators and relayers are required to perform regular key rotation, with the rotation interval dynamically determined by the value at risk and quantum risk factors:

  $$ \text{KeyRotationInterval} = f(\text{BridgeTVL},, \text{QRiskFactor}) $$

  This ensures fresh Dilithium keys are routinely deployed for all cross-chain signing operations, minimizing exposure from potential key compromise.

• Mandatory Dilithium Resigning:
  All outbound bridge messages must be resigned with new Dilithium keys at least every 8 hours, reducing the attack window for any adversary—even with quantum capabilities.

• Quantum Kill Switch:
  Bridge contracts are equipped with an automated "kill switch" mechanism. If monitoring logic detects that more than 15% of bridged assets have been compromised (based on abnormal withdrawals, double spends, or validator slashing), the contract will immediately freeze further bridge operations. This triggers a governance-led remediation process to investigate, recover, or upgrade the bridge protocol as needed.

These mechanisms collectively strengthen the integrity and responsiveness of QuantumLayer’s cross-chain functionality, providing proactive and reactive defenses against quantum-enabled and conventional attacks.

Summary Table: Bridge Security Features

Feature	Description
Key Rotation	Automatic, protocol-enforced, based on value/risk
Mandatory Resigning	All bridge messages require fresh Dilithium signatures every 8 hours
Quantum Kill Switch	Auto-freeze of bridge if >15% assets compromised, requiring governance action
On-chain Monitoring	Real-time surveillance and reporting for suspicious cross-chain activity

• Sybil Resistance:
  Economic cost of acquiring $QNTM$ and risk of slashing deter Sybil and bribery attacks.
• Incentive Alignment:
  Validators, delegators, and protocol participants are economically aligned to act honestly via staking rewards and penalties.

• Governance Upgrades:
  All protocol upgrades are subject to open, time-locked governance.
• Audits:
  Mandatory external and community security audits for core modules and major upgrades.
• Bug Bounty:
  Ongoing program rewards discovery and responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities.

• Consensus and Cryptographic Modules:
  Specification in TLA+, Coq, or equivalent formal frameworks is planned for mainnet, further increasing assurance of safety and correctness.

QuantumLayer’s security model combines post-quantum cryptography, battle-tested BFT consensus, rigorous economic incentives, and open governance to provide robust, future-proof security for decentralized applications and digital assets.

QuantumLayer is designed to deliver high throughput, rapid finality, and low-latency transaction processing, while maintaining robust post-quantum security and decentralization. This section outlines theoretical and empirical benchmarks for key network parameters.

• Block Time:
  Configurable, default 1 second per block.
• Finality:
  Achieved instantly upon $2/3$+ validator precommit signatures (typically 1–2 seconds).
• Block Size:
  Configurable, e.g., 1–2 MB per block (dependent on network performance and Dilithium signature size).

QuantumLayer’s transaction throughput is primarily determined by block size, transaction size, and signature overhead, especially as validator count increases.

Transaction Capacity Calculation:

Let:

• $B$ = Block size (e.g., 2,000,000 bytes)
• $N$ = Number of validators
• $T$ = Average transaction payload size (e.g., 300 bytes, excluding signature)
• $S_\sigma$ = Dilithium signature size (2,420 bytes for Dilithium2)

Header Size:

$$ \text{HeaderSize} = 2,420 + (\lceil 2N/3 \rceil \times 2,420) $$

Available Space for Transactions:

$$ \text{AvailableTxSpace} = B - \text{HeaderSize} $$

Max Transactions per Block:

$$ n_{\text{tx}} = \frac{\text{AvailableTxSpace}}{T + S_\sigma} $$

Example (N = 100, B = 2MB):

• HeaderSize = $2,420 + (67 \times 2,420) = 164,560$ bytes
• AvailableTxSpace = $2,000,000 - 164,560 = 1,835,440$ bytes
• $n_{\text{tx}} = \frac{1,835,440}{2,720} \approx 675$ tx/block

At 1 block per second, this yields 675 TPS.

Header Size and TPS by Validator Count (2MB block):

Through continuous optimization (batch verification, parallelism, account model compression), QuantumLayer sustains industry-leading throughput while ensuring post-quantum security.

Let:

• $B$ = block size in bytes
• $T$ = average transaction payload size (excluding signature), e.g., 300 bytes
• $S_\sigma$ = signature size (Dilithium2: ~2,420 bytes)

Then, the approximate number of transactions per block is:

$$ n_{tx} \approx \frac{B}{T + S_\sigma} $$

Example:
For $B = 1,000,000$ bytes, $T = 300$ bytes, $S_\sigma = 2,420$ bytes:

$$ n_{tx} \approx \frac{1,000,000}{2,720} \approx 367 \ \text{tx/block} $$

At 1 block per second, this yields ~367 TPS (transactions per second).

• Testnet Results:
  Initial testnets demonstrate sustained throughput of 300–800 TPS with 100+ validators and full Dilithium signature validation.
• Optimization Roadmap:
  Parallel signature verification, transaction batching, and block compression are under development to increase throughput further.

• Transaction Confirmation:
  Most transactions achieve finality in 1–2 seconds (one block time, no reorg risk).
• Inter-Block Latency:
  Minimal delay between block proposals and commit events due to pipelined consensus and efficient networking.

• Dilithium Verification:
  Modern CPUs can verify ~1,000–3,000 Dilithium signatures per second per core.
• Validator Hardware:
  Benchmarked on commodity servers (e.g., 8–16 core x86/ARM, 32GB RAM, SSD), demonstrating linear scaling with core count.

• Validator Set Size:
  Protocol supports hundreds of validators with minimal impact on block time or throughput.
• Global Distribution:
  P2P architecture and fast block propagation support worldwide, permissionless validator participation.
• Light Clients:
  Efficient Merkle proofs and minimal data requirements support mobile and browser-based wallets.

• QuantumLayer v1: Batch verification and protocol-level optimization.
• QuantumLayer v3: Hardware acceleration (FPGA/PQC), future signature compression, STARK proofs of signature validity.
• Ethereum: Classical cryptography only; no native post-quantum support.

All performance figures are grounded in testnet benchmarks and engineering constraints, with technical milestones mapped to the published roadmap.

• Parallelism:
  Full parallel verification of signatures and transaction execution for further scalability.
• Signature Aggregation:
  Research into PQ-safe signature aggregation (e.g., based on lattice schemes) to reduce bandwidth and block size overhead.
• Block Compression:
  On-chain and network-layer optimizations to further boost throughput and reduce resource consumption.
• Hardware Acceleration:
  Support for PQC-enabled cryptographic hardware (e.g., TPMs, HSMs, FPGAs) for high-throughput validators.

QuantumLayer’s performance design demonstrates that high throughput, low latency, and post-quantum security can coexist, supporting the demands of modern DeFi, NFT, and enterprise applications at global scale.

QuantumLayer is engineered for adaptability and longevity in a rapidly evolving cryptographic and regulatory landscape. All core protocol modules are upgradeable via transparent, community-driven governance—ensuring the network can incorporate new features, security improvements, and ecosystem innovations without disruptive hard forks.

• Module Isolation:
  Core protocol components (consensus, execution, networking, interoperability, governance, cryptography) are logically separated, facilitating independent upgrades and testing.
• On-Chain Upgrade Proposals:
  All protocol upgrades are enacted through on-chain governance, requiring proposals, voting, quorum, and time-locked execution.
• Backward Compatibility:
  Upgrade processes emphasize compatibility and seamless migration for nodes, validators, and applications.

1. Proposal Submission:
   Upgrades begin as governance proposals specifying the targeted module, code diffs, and migration steps.
2. Community Review:
   Public discussion, code audit, and security review are mandatory before voting.
3. Voting and Approval:
   Token holders approve upgrades via on-chain governance with enforced quorum and majority thresholds.
4. Time-Locked Execution:
   Successful upgrades are scheduled for activation after a safety timelock, allowing participants to prepare or opt out if needed.
5. Migration and Rollout:
   Upgrade scripts or binary releases are distributed; node operators and validators migrate during the scheduled window.
6. Post-Upgrade Validation:
   Monitoring and roll-back mechanisms are in place to detect and remediate unforeseen issues.

• Parameter Adjustment:
  Governance can upgrade cryptographic parameters (e.g., switch to Dilithium3/5, update hash functions) in response to advances in quantum computing or cryptanalysis.
• Algorithm Swapping:
  Future support for alternative PQC algorithms (e.g., Falcon, Picnic) is planned, allowing phased migration and coexistence.
• Deprecation and Key Rotation:
  Old or insecure keys and cryptosystems can be deprecated, and mass key rotation supported via protocol tools.

• Public testnet with full post-quantum consensus and CosmWasm support.
• Dilithium-enabled wallets (CLI, browser extensions).
• Mainnet audit (external and community) and testnet incentives.
• IBC-enabled interoperability with select Cosmos chains.

• Mainnet launch with 100+ validator set and open staking.
• Quantum-safe bridges (Ethereum, Polkadot, and PQ chains) in beta.
• DAO treasury, grant program, and hackathons.
• Appchain launchpad for domain-specific subnets.
• zkWASM research (privacy-preserving smart contracts) pilot.

• Full formal verification (TLA+, Coq) of consensus and cryptographic modules.
• PQC light clients and quantum-resistant IBC relayers.
• Native hardware wallet and HSM/FIDO2 integrations.
• Performance upgrades (block compression, signature aggregation).
• Enterprise and regulated network deployments.

• Audits:
  Mandatory code and security audits before major upgrades.
• Emergency Upgrades:
  Rapid-response governance procedures for critical bugs or vulnerabilities.
• Transparency:
  All upgrade history, proposals, votes, and results are on-chain and publicly auditable.
• Community Involvement:
  All stakeholders—including developers, validators, users, and institutional partners—can propose, review, and veto upgrades.

QuantumLayer’s upgradability ensures that the protocol remains secure, innovative, and responsive to the needs of the ecosystem—protecting both current and future users in the quantum era.

QuantumLayer aims to become the foundational infrastructure for the next generation of decentralized applications, spanning consumer, enterprise, and institutional domains. Its post-quantum security, modular architecture, and interoperability enable a vibrant ecosystem of builders, users, and partners.

• Quantum-Safe AMMs and DEXs:
  Build automated market makers and decentralized exchanges where all trades, liquidity, and governance actions are secured by post-quantum cryptography.
• Lending and Borrowing:
  Launch lending protocols, synthetic assets, and overcollateralized stablecoins with future-proof security.
• Interchain Liquidity:
  Use IBC and bridges to create cross-chain DeFi, enabling pooled liquidity and composable products across Cosmos, Ethereum, and PQC-enabled chains.

• Omnichain NFTs:
  Mint, trade, and move NFTs between chains with provable quantum-resistant ownership and provenance.
• Gaming Economies:
  Support in-game assets, rewards, and fair marketplaces that are robust against cryptographic obsolescence.

• On-Chain DAOs:
  Launch programmable organizations, treasuries, and voting modules natively on QuantumLayer.
• Cross-Chain Governance:
  Collaborate with other ecosystems through IBC-enabled proposals, voting, and treasury management.

• Quantum-Proof Identity:
  Deploy identity registries and verifiable credentials, resistant to quantum impersonation and fraud.
• Enterprise Compliance:
  Enable permissioned networks and regulatory compliance for banks, exchanges, and government pilots.

• Appchains:
  Deploy domain-specific blockchains (subnets) using QuantumLayer’s appchain framework—e.g., for healthcare, IoT, or national digital currencies.
• Data Marketplaces:
  Build marketplaces for quantum-resistant data, AI models, and digital assets, with on-chain licensing and attribution.

• Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs):
  Launch state-backed digital currencies with built-in quantum resistance, privacy, and interoperability.
• Enterprise Asset Tokenization:
  Digitize real-world assets—securities, real estate, supply chain assets—with secure custody and cross-chain transferability.

• Builder Grants & Hackathons:
  Regular grant rounds, hackathons, and accelerator programs for DeFi, NFTs, infrastructure, and tooling projects.
• Audits & Bounties:
  Incentivized security audits, bug bounties, and whitehat programs.
• Education & Outreach:
  Tutorials, documentation, webinars, and community meetups to onboard new developers and users.

• Cosmos Ecosystem:
  Natively interoperable with IBC-enabled Cosmos chains for shared liquidity and applications.
• Ethereum, Polkadot, PQC Chains:
  Roadmap includes robust bridges for secure cross-ecosystem composability and institutional integrations.
• Enterprise, Academia, and Governments:
  Strategic collaborations for real-world pilots, standards development, and cryptographic research.

• Open Source:
  All core protocol, SDKs, and reference implementations are open source, licensed for maximum community contribution.
• Community Governance:
  Empowering $QNTM$ holders to drive protocol evolution, treasury spending, and ecosystem direction.
• Ambassador & Advocacy Programs:
  Global community programs for outreach, localization, and ecosystem growth.

QuantumLayer’s ecosystem strategy is to create a secure, composable, and inclusive platform for all users—ensuring innovation, resilience, and adoption in the quantum era and beyond.

QuantumLayer sets a new benchmark for blockchain infrastructure in the age of quantum computing. By pioneering native post-quantum security through CRYSTALS-Dilithium signatures and coupling it with a modular, extensible Cosmos SDK foundation, QuantumLayer provides a platform that is both future-proof and highly adaptable.

The protocol’s consensus mechanism, transaction model, smart contract environment, and on-chain governance are all designed for resilience, scalability, and ease of use—enabling developers, institutions, and users to build, transact, and govern with unprecedented confidence. Through integrated IBC interoperability and planned quantum-safe bridges, QuantumLayer fosters a truly interconnected Web3 ecosystem, unlocking new levels of composability and cross-domain collaboration.

QuantumLayer’s tokenomics align incentives for validators, developers, and the broader community, ensuring sustained security, decentralization, and rapid ecosystem growth. Its upgradeable architecture and open governance guarantee that the protocol can evolve in response to technological advances, regulatory changes, and the needs of the global user base.

As quantum computing transitions from theoretical threat to practical reality, the need for quantum-resistant infrastructure is urgent and universal. QuantumLayer invites developers, researchers, enterprises, and communities worldwide to participate in building the most secure, composable, and future-ready blockchain platform of the next decade.

QuantumLayer: The foundation for trust and innovation in the quantum era.

1. Shor, P. W.
   "Algorithms for Quantum Computation: Discrete Logarithms and Factoring."
   Proceedings 35th Annual Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science, 1994.
   Link

2. Regev, O.
   "On Lattices, Learning with Errors, Random Linear Codes, and Cryptography."
   Journal of the ACM, Vol. 56, No. 6, Article 34, 2009.
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3. Lyubashevsky, V., et al.
   "CRYSTALS–Dilithium: A Lattice-Based Digital Signature Scheme."
   NIST PQC Project, 2022.
   Official site

4. NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Standardization Project.
   Official project page

5. Cosmos SDK Documentation.
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6. Tendermint BFT: Consensus Without Mining.
   Jae Kwon, 2014.
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7. CosmWasm Documentation.
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8. liboqs – Open Quantum Safe project.
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9. IBC Protocol Specification.
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10. Grover, L. K.
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    Proceedings of the 28th Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing, 1996.
    Link

11. Falcon: Fast-Fourier Lattice-based Compact Signatures over NTRU.
    Official site

12. Open-Source PQC Libraries.

    • pqcrypto (Rust)
    • liboqs-go

13. Ethereum Yellow Paper.
    Dr. Gavin Wood, 2014.
    ethereum.github.io/yellowpaper

14. Solana: A new architecture for a high performance blockchain.
    Yakovenko, A., 2018.
    whitepaper

15. Avalanche: A Novel Consensus Protocol Family for Blockchains.
    Team Rocket, 2018.
    arXiv:1906.08936

16. BFT Consensus: An Analysis of Safety and Liveness.
    Lamport, L., Shostak, R., Pease, M., 1982.
    Link

17. SHA-3 Standard: Permutation-Based Hash and Extendable-Output Functions.
    NIST FIPS PUB 202, 2015.
    Official PDF

This whitepaper is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

Abhishek Chauhan
Email: abhishek@fractz.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ac12644
GitHub: github.com/ac12644

If you use, reference, or build on this work, please cite as:

Abhishek Chauhan. "QuantumLayer: Whitepaper." 2025. https://github.com/ac12644/QuantumLayer.git