Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, stated that the threat of quantum to blockchain is being overstated today. He claimed that the industry already knows how to build quantum-resistant systems but lacks the efficiency and consistent tuning of equipment to adapt.

In a recent podcast discussion, he explained that quantum is a huge distraction and added that real urgency will arise when military-level quantum testing shows credible advancements.

Quantum is not a significant factor with crypto.

Hoskinson explains that blockchain can transition to quantum-safe cryptography, but the trade-off in performance will be significant.

"Protocols to do so slow down about 10 times and cost up to 10 times more," Hoskinson said.

He emphasized that currently, no network wants to sacrifice processing capability for future-proofing, stating that

"I have a thousand transactions per second. Right now, I can do a hundred transactions per second, but I am safe from quantum. No one wants to be that person."

Standards are still a key gateway.

The founder of Cardano links the delay of quantum security to the standards until initial government guidance is released. This factory risks adopting deprecated or unsupported cryptography.

"We have to wait for the U.S. government to write the standards," he said, referring to FIPS 203–206 under NIST's post-quantum cryptography program.

Currently, hardware vendors are oriented towards creating silicon that supports acceleration for approved post-quantum cryptography algorithms.

Hoskinson has pointed out why this is crucial for blockchain performance: "If you choose a non-standard protocol, you will slow down up to 100 times from hardware acceleration."

He stated that conforming to NIST allows for both speed and security without locking the network into inefficient cryptography for a decade.

This is a turning point. Post-quantum standards already exist, and the U.S. government has begun to adopt them.

Major infrastructure players, such as Cloudflare, have already integrated PQ key exchange methods into core traffic. This marks that the momentum for migration is slowly increasing across the internet security gears.

The quantum threat to crypto is a matter of time, not immediate.

The conceptual framework of Hoskinson reflects a broad awareness in cryptographic research. The threat of quantum to blockchain signing is real but not currently relevant.

Researchers and financial security analysts still view CRQC-level systems as a 2030s event rather than a current threat. The risk arises from when, not if, it will transition.

At that time, there was a clock reference already. "DARPA has a project called QBI, Quantum Blockchain Initiative," Hoskinson said.

As he said, the project is evaluating 11 companies to determine if practical quantum computers will be large-scale by 2033.

He called QBI the clearest public benchmark for journalists following the advancements, adding that

The military needs to know — when to upgrade crypto systems and how to do it.

The recent movement supports his caution. While quantum research continues — from topology-based quantum qubit work, like Microsoft’s Majorana-based devices, to the large PQ rollout in communication infrastructure — there’s no evidence pointing to an imminent collapse of crypto systems.

Post-quantum migration continues, but costs, delays, and ecosystem fragmentation remain obstacles for blockchain.

Why it matters.

Hoskinson's comments represent a breakthrough in debates often driven more by speculation than engineering data. Quantum-safe blockchain designs already exist, but premature activation will slow networks, increase transaction costs, and create fragmentation of developer tools.

While the NIST standards have been established and the hardware roadmap is taking shape, the network is moving towards planning, not panic.

Most experts believe that changes will occur in the next decade. Hoskinson reflects that idea:

"Most smart people think it’s quite possible we’ll have something in the 2030s."

Until then, performance, competitiveness, and support for hardware acceleration will determine when blockchain transitions to quantum-resistant cryptography.