Quantos Technical Whitepaper
Post-Quantum Layer 1 Blockchain with Zero-Gas Execution and Cryptographic Cross-Chain Finality
Version 2.2 — July 2026
Abstract
Quantos is a Rust Layer 1 research and testnet codebase focused on post-quantum transaction authentication, DAG-based propagation, deterministic state execution, and cross-chain finality tooling. The repository contains an executable node, JSON-RPC services, storage, networking, a WASM/EVM execution layer, consensus components, SDKs, and experimental protocol modules.
The official Quantos-Labs/Quantos repository describes a PQC-native profile based on ML-DSA-65 (FIPS 204) for transaction/checkpoint signatures, ML-KEM-768 (FIPS 203) for KEM operations, a Rescue-Prime + STARK hash-based VRF, and SPHINCS+ support. The L1 dependency manifest uses pqcrypto-mldsa, pqcrypto-kyber, pqcrypto-sphincsplus, and Winterfell. This whitepaper follows that repository and does not import algorithm names from another local Quantos tree.
The repository contains the L1 node under L1/, wallet and SDK workspaces, bridges, L0 relayers, PQC-Guard contracts, privacy modules, application contracts, benchmarks, and documentation. This whitepaper distinguishes repository features from measured performance, deployed production guarantees, and future mainnet policy.
Status vocabulary
- Implemented means the relevant code exists in the repository and has tests or an executable integration path.
- Experimental means the module exists but its production integration, adversarial validation, or network deployment is incomplete.
- Planned means the repository documents the design but does not contain the final mainnet implementation.
- Target means a performance or economic objective that requires reproducible benchmark evidence.
Where this whitepaper and the source code differ, the source code and its tests govern. The repository's current authoritative scope is the Rust node under L1/, together with the explicitly included SDKs, contracts, bridges, privacy, PQC-Guard and L0 components.
Table of Contents
This whitepaper is organized into the following sections:
- Introduction
- Post-Quantum Cryptography
- Cryptographic Primitives Deep-Dive
- QuantumDAG Consensus
- DAG Structure & Ordering
- Committee Selection & VRF Rotation
- Advanced Consensus Mechanisms
- Performance
- Dynamic Sharding
- State Model & Accounts
- Virtual Machine & Smart Contracts
- Native Token Standards (QN-4/8/12)
- Storage Layer
- Mempool, MEV & Transaction Lifecycle
- STACC: Zero-Gas Execution
- Tokenomics & QTS Economics
- Staking, Delegation & Slashing
- Layer 0 Finality Hub
- PQC Key Migration
- PQC-Guard: Multi-VM Smart Account
- Sidechains
- Network Layer
- Data Availability & State Compression
- Security Model
- Application Ecosystem & Developer Tooling
- Governance
- Node Operation & Validator Requirements
- Comparison with Existing Chains
- Use Cases
- Roadmap
- Glossary
- References
- Conclusion