EHI's commitment to post-quantum agent ownership before The Crack.
Quantum computers will break ECDSA — the signature scheme that secures Bitcoin, Ethereum, and every NFT on Earth today. This is not speculation; it is mathematics.
Google published research demonstrating that a future quantum computer could derive a Bitcoin private key from its public key in approximately nine minutes.
Every asset secured by classical cryptography — Bitcoin, Ethereum, every ERC-20, every ERC-721 — becomes forgeable when sufficiently powerful quantum computers arrive. The question is not if. The question is when, and who is prepared.
EHI is preparing.
EHI implements a phased post-quantum migration for agent ownership. Each phase is auditable, reversible, and scheduled before the projected quantum threat timeline.
This document. A public commitment to post-quantum ownership with a published schedule. Zero code changes — nothing touches the frozen, audit-confirmed contract tree.
A separately audited module allowing agent owners to register NIST-standardized ML-DSA (Dilithium) public keys alongside their ECDSA keys. Dual-path verification: either key proves ownership. Opt-in, backwards-compatible, zero migration required.
At the November 2028 decision gate, post-quantum ownership becomes the default for all new claims. Every new agent registration uses PQ signatures from day one.
At The Crack — the live on-chain event where the game's narrative and the protocol's security converge — every agent re-keys under post-quantum signatures. A public migration ceremony, executed in real time, verifiable by anyone. The nine-minute window. The protocol that read the warning.
How EHI compares to the platforms it builds on and the assets it competes with:
| Platform | PQ Roadmap | Timeline | Application-Level PQ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | None published | — | No |
| Ethereum | In development (hash-based signatures) | L1: 2027–2028 | No — L1 infrastructure only |
| EHI | Published (this Mandate) | PQCRegistry: Q4 2026 | Yes — ML-DSA for agent ownership |
EHI's application-level PQ (ML-DSA signatures for agent ownership) ships before Ethereum's L1 quantum infrastructure. When Ethereum's PQ layer arrives in 2027–2028, EHI agents are already protected.
EHI's quantum roadmap is a protocol-level security feature — independent of any game or application built on top.
The Great Rotation (Phase 3) is a protocol migration: every asset secured by EHI's contracts re-keys under post-quantum signatures. The first application built on the protocol — agents.game — dramatizes this migration as a narrative event called The Crack. The game makes the security visible; the protocol makes it real.
The protocol is the asset. The game is the first use case.
Investors evaluating $EHI on fundamentals — supply, utility, security, distribution — can assess the Quantum Mandate without engaging with the game. The protocol's post-quantum commitment stands on its own: application-level ML-DSA signatures, published timeline, separately audited module. The game connection is supplementary, not definitional.
Your agent remains secure under ECDSA until quantum computers capable of breaking it actually exist. The PQCRegistry (Phase 1) allows you to add ML-DSA keys alongside your existing keys — dual-path verification. Your agent is protected by whichever signature scheme is stronger. Re-keying is opt-in until Phase 3 (The Great Rotation), when it becomes the default for all active agents.
Yes. The PQCRegistry supports dual-path verification from day one. Either your ECDSA key or your ML-DSA key proves ownership. This means you're protected by the stronger of the two schemes at any point in time — classical today, quantum-resistant tomorrow.
The Mandate's phases can be accelerated. Phase 1 (PQCRegistry) ships in Q4 2026 — if quantum threats materialize faster, Phase 2 (PQ Default) can be pulled forward. The architecture is designed for flexibility: the dual-path system means protection can be added without a hard migration deadline.
Then the ML-DSA keys simply coexist with ECDSA — no harm, no downside. The dual-path system is additive, not replacement-based. Your agent is protected by both schemes regardless of which proves more necessary.
Ethereum is building L1-level quantum resistance (hash-based signatures, leanVM) targeting 2027–2028. EHI's PQCRegistry ships Q4 2026 — application-level quantum protection BEFORE Ethereum's L1 infrastructure. When Ethereum's PQ layer arrives, EHI agents are already protected at the application layer. The two approaches are complementary: EHI's ML-DSA for ownership + Ethereum's L1 improvements for infrastructure.
We do not claim to be "quantum-proof" — no honest engineer does. We claim to be quantum-aware, with a published roadmap and scheduled implementation.
Agent ownership on EHI will use NIST-standardized post-quantum signatures before The Crack arrives. This is a commitment with a deadline, not an aspiration without one.
The Quantum Mandate is a technical roadmap, not a guarantee of future results. Post-quantum cryptography is an active research field; standards may evolve. EHI commits to maintaining the Mandate as the state of the art advances, and to updating this document as phases complete.