BSC Quantum Upgrade: 40% TPS Drop Despite Passing Test

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BSC Passes its Quantum Upgrade Test but Loses 40% of Throughput

Key Takeaways

  • ML-DSA-44 replaces ECDSA; signature size grows from 65 bytes to 2,420 bytes, +37x.
  • Block size at 2,000 TPS grows from ~130 KB to ~2 MB, +18x, driven by signature size.
  • Cross-region TPS falls approximately 40% in testing.
  • Existing addresses, RPCs, SDKs, and wallets remain compatible.

What the upgrade replaces and why

The current digital signature system, ECDSA, works well with today’s computers but could be broken by future quantum computers. This weakness comes from the way ECDSA is built on certain mathematical principles that quantum computers could exploit. We’re upgrading to ML-DSA-44, a new, quantum-resistant system approved by NIST. This also changes how we combine votes – we’re switching from BLS signatures to pqSTARK, which creates a single, efficient proof for all validator signatures. Importantly, your existing addresses, software tools, and wallets will continue to work as before.

Where the overhead accumulates and why it costs 40%

Public key sizes are increasing significantly, growing twentyfold from 64 to 1,312 bytes. Similarly, signatures are becoming much larger, increasing 37 times in size from 65 to 2,420 bytes. These larger signatures are the primary reason block sizes have increased by over 18 times – from around 130 KB to approximately 2 MB – as each transaction includes a signature.

The recent 40% drop in transactions per second isn’t happening in isolation. It’s a consequence of several factors: signatures have become 37 times larger, which has caused blocks to grow 18 times in size. This ultimately leads to slow data transfer between regions, making it impossible to maintain our current speed. We’ve fixed the issues with the security aspects, but the problem now lies with how quickly data travels across our network.

Most encouraging number

The way the system verifies transactions is changing, and the results are promising. The new ‘pqSTARK’ method replaces a complex process with a single, more efficient verification step for all validator signatures – increasing the proof size by only 3.5 times. This means the main challenge isn’t coordinating the network, but rather making each individual transaction more efficient. The size of the verification data will increase from 96 bytes to around 340 bytes. Since the overall system verification is now efficient, the remaining work focuses on reducing the processing needed for each transaction while still maintaining strong security against future quantum computers.

BSC Post-Quantum Upgrade Passes Test, but TPS Falls 40%

BNB Chain has published a report detailing its progress in upgrading to post-quantum cryptography on its BSC network. Testing involved using ML-DSA-44 for signing transactions and pqSTARK for how votes are counted, and the overall system design is still under development.

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain)

As a researcher on this project, one of the things we’re really excited about is that our design works with existing addresses, tools, and wallets. This means upgrading shouldn’t be as expensive or disruptive as it has been in the past for other networks. However, we’re still facing challenges with performance. Initial tests show a 40% reduction in transactions per second (TPS), and frankly, that’s not good enough for a network that needs to be fast and affordable. We need to improve that significantly before we can realistically consider deploying this in a production environment.

Based on my analysis of the test reports, if we see a cross-region transactions-per-second (TPS) decline of less than 15% while ML-DSA-44 remains stable, we’re getting close to being ready for a production release. However, if optimization efforts don’t bring that gap down below 30%, it signals we have a deeper data-layer scaling issue that won’t be solved by simple fixes like compression or caching. We’ll need to consider a more significant change to the system’s architecture in that case.

This article is for informational purposes only and shouldn’t be considered financial, investment, or trading advice. Coindoo.com doesn’t recommend any particular investment or cryptocurrency. Always do your own research and talk to a qualified financial advisor before investing.

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2026-05-19 16:56