[ANN] QRL - Announcing the Quantum Resistant Ledger

[inca]

I would like to announce that the Quantum Resistant Ledger (QRL) has launched!

The QRL is the first decentralized cryptocurrency which has implemented from the outset to be resistant to both classical and quantum computing attack.

It uses a different system of cryptography to Bitcoin (and all other altcoins) known as XMSS, which is a hash-based digital signature scheme, and provably quantum-resistant.  The ledger will be the first to use quantum-resistant signatures on a blockchain, which provides an ultra secure store of value in the event of a sudden advance in quantum computing (rendering bitcoin, ethereum etc vulnerable to attack). The initial aim of the project is to establish a functional and secure blockchain on which more technology can be built, such as the Ephemeral post-quantum secure data channels.

The project has grown significantly over the course of 2017 and 2018, led by myself, a core dev team, ancillary devs and a post-quantum cryptographer. We have added to that a marketing manager and small communications team.

Our current featureset:

1. Multi-platform qrlcore node release.
2. Multi-platform binary wallets (Mac, Windows, and Linux)
3.User friendly Webwallet (https://wallet.theqrl.org) and Explorer (https://explorer.theqrl.org)
4. 100% PQ-secure address space for the QRL (XMSS)
5. Cryptonight POW algorithm, 1 minute block-time interval, ability to mine in existing pools, using existing mining software.
6. Completely separated wallet and node functionality with all wallet-based requests passing through the node by our universal grpc api.
7. Use of slave XMSS tree signing capability to allow secure mining (and later, staking) keeping private keys offline.
8. PQ-token capability out of the box — creating tokens on the QRL chain is now functional.
9. PQ-secure data stamping functionality out of the box.
10. Two audits covering 100% of our codebase.
11. Full API (https://api.theqrl.org) and Documentation (https://docs.theqrl.org)
12. Offline-wallet-generator: (https://github.com/theQRL/offline-wallet-generator)
13. Hardware wallet support through Ledger Nano S/X

Upcoming hard fork featureset:

1. Multisig addresses
2. Deterministic address support
3. Extended message transaction functionality
4. Decentralised on-chain poll support
5. Backwards incompatible state upgrades and optimisations

Features anticipated for 2019/2020 hard forks include:

1. Smart Contracts (Project Silicon)
2. Ephemeral messaging
3. Consensus mechanism change (PoS, dPoS)

Anyone who wishes to get involved can join our Discord server below. The best way to find out QRL related news would be to keep an eye on Twitter, Reddit, Medium, and/or Discord.

The QRL is currently trading on Bittrex and related international sites.

Genesis Block = 65M coins.
Final distribution in 200 years is 105M (exponential decay in emission).
Blocktime will initially be 60s.

When PoS Comes:
No minimum staking limit. Secure offline staking via deferred stake signatures. .

Feel free to ask any questions.
Many thanks,
Inca

Whitepaper: https://github.com/theQRL/Whitepaper
We now have translations in Japanese, Russian, Chinese, German, French, Turkish, Spanish, & Vietnamese on our website

Website: http://theqrl.org
Discord: https://discord.gg/BheKAZb
GitHub: https://github.com/theQRL
Medium: https://medium.com/the-quantum-resistant-ledger
Twitter: https://twitter.com/qrledger
Subreddit: www.reddit.com/r/QRL /
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Quantum-Resistant-Ledger-492163101309701/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZl6N10P9LNpYkrMwWYtK1w

Email: info@theqrl.org
Support Email: support@theqrl.org

CMC: https://coinmarketcap.com/assets/quantum-resistant-ledger/

Bittrex: https://bittrex.com/Market/Index?MarketName=BTC-QRL
UpBit: https://upbit.com/exchange?code=CRIX.UPBIT.BTC-QRL

[inca]

Reserved.

[BTC Community]

oh ,great , hope to see more information and maybe we can give you a hand soon

[AT101ET]

This looks very interesting. I'll be watching closely.
Haven't read the white paper yet but other than using hash based signatures will this have any other implementations that will be different to BTC/ETH etc?

[inca]

This looks very interesting. I'll be watching closely.
Haven't read the white paper yet but other than using hash based signatures will this have any other implementations that will be different to BTC/ETH etc?

Actually the ledger addresses are derived from a modified merkle tree signature scheme (XMSS) in a hypertree construction using hash-based one-time signatures to sign transactions.

But you are correct that at this time the project is to be similar to BTC, featuring a capped upper supply limit, with very limited scripting and an emphasis upon security over scalability (the signatures / transactions are necessarily much bigger than any other crypto ledger thus far).

We are at quite an early stage so some design parameters may change but i am keen to allow bitcoin users to directly import their balances into the chain for a time after the main net goes live.

Thanks for the interest.

[lizidev]

what  time  it work

[BTC Community]

talking about the quantum computing attack with the foresight consciousness is necessary，im very interest in this. but i think webwallet is not  primary task but the testnet is

[inca]

talking about the quantum computing attack with the foresight consciousness is necessary，im very interest in this. but i think webwallet is not  primary task but the testnet is

Yes I won't be developing anything more than the server side code for a webwallet - needs a JS developer although we could fairly easily code up a mymonero clone.

First priority is to complete the node.

The project is still seeking python developers who want to join up. Anyone interested in the benefits that go with joining a project this early PM me.

Happy new year and a profitable 2017 to you all.

[BTC Community]

talking about the quantum computing attack with the foresight consciousness is necessary，im very interest in this. but i think webwallet is not  primary task but the testnet is

Yes I won't be developing anything more than the server side code for a webwallet - needs a JS developer although we could fairly easily code up a mymonero clone.

First priority is to complete the node.

The project is still seeking python developers who want to join up. Anyone interested in the benefits that go with joining a project this early PM me.

Happy new year and a profitable 2017 to you all.

suggest finding python engineer VIA python community

[inca]

Update:
I am pleased to report that XMSS is now successfully integrated into the test node. I have also created deterministic addresses within giant XMSS trees from a single recoverable hexSEED / 32 word mnemonic using a provably secure pseudo random number function (HMAC_DRBG).

The QRL test node currently supports 3 types of post-quantum transaction types: 1) Lamport-Diffie one time signatures below a many time merkle tree signature scheme (MSS), 2) Winternitz-OTS signatures with a many time MSS and now 3) XMSS - a recommended post-quantum signature scheme incorporating W-OTS+ and XMSS many time trees. I may remove the support for the first two and focus upon a single tx type with longer keys.

What is interesting is that the signatures with XMSS are roughly 12kb hexlified (~6kb binary). Internode compression of transmitted transactions and blocks may be something to look into as they are currently communicated as plaintext JSON. Creating an XMSS tree which can provide 4096 signatures/transactions safely generates a wallet file size of ~50mb! There are around 330,000 256 bit keys generated (bitmasks, secret/public key fragments etc) for just this single tree. I was perplexed by this as most people like quite a few addresses and this would generate absolutely huge wallet files. But I have discovered a neat way of generating hundreds of addresses within the XMSS tree by simply contracting the merkle tree and recalculating the root value+PK..and voila a new address. New addresses can be added with minimal additional calculation (just need to keep the tree differences) as they share bitmasks and OTS keys with the original.

Releases:
A collaborator has created a blockchain explorer for the QRL (testnet) and we will be making that public once it looks pretty enough - probably later this week.

Whilst I work on the node he is now working on a client side JS web wallet similar to mymonero which will communicate with a custom node via an API. The general idea is that user supplies a seed word mnemonic and the JS wallet obtains state information from the node. Transactions can be created client side and sent fully formed+signed to the node. It is only as secure as the browser but should suffice for less technical users.

Todo:
There is still plenty of work to be done. The next stage is to declutter some of the code, tidy up the protocol, simplify and better partition the state code, finally sort the currency units and improve reliability of the node - in particular the chain following behaviour.

PoS:
Recently I have had some ideas about implementing a Proof of stake system. I like the idea of using proof of stake in the longer term. I will experiment with introducing a PoS system for the QRL which is very simple but secure. I have been writing my ideas for a protocol in a second whitepaper which I will release after some testing!

More updates as they come..Volunteers welcome as always.

Inca

[BTC Community]

@inca im back after my holiday , good to see the project going smoothly.

[mtwelve]

Interesting you call it a ledger and not a cryptocurrency. Was that intentional? Is the purpose of the QRL more for tamper resistance recording of information then as a transfer/store of value?

[inca]

Interesting you call it a ledger and not a cryptocurrency. Was that intentional? Is the purpose of the QRL more for tamper resistance recording of information then as a transfer/store of value?

Whilst my original intention was simply to integrate post-quantum signatures into a blockchain (which I have done successfully) I did envision the QRL as carrying value. Information can have value of course, but for a blockchain to work the base tokens must be desirable IMO.

[mtwelve]

I'm not entirely knowledgeable with how you have achieved this, but will mining be any different then SHA-256 or Scrypt, X-11, etc.?

[inca]

I'm not entirely knowledgeable with how you have achieved this, but will mining be any different then SHA-256 or Scrypt, X-11, etc.?

Whilst the current design has a placeholder sha-256 pow function the testnet release will be proof of stake. With this in mind I will circulate a proportion of the starting ledger balance at genesis.

[BuySomeBitcoins]

First, congrats for your initiative and work on QRL.

But Quantum Resistant Ledger can not be tested without a Quantum attack, even if you apply theory and mathematics, we are still far from Quantum computing and have no insight about its capabilities.

[inca]

First, congrats for your initiative and work on QRL.

But Quantum Resistant Ledger can not be tested without a Quantum attack, even if you apply theory and mathematics, we are still far from Quantum computing and have no insight about its capabilities.

Thanks. But we do know already that Shor's Algorithm had been used to factor small numbers with early quantum computer prototypes. It is true we may be some way off from such machines breaking ECDSA - but the honest answer is we cannot be sure!

Update: I have begun implementing POS on the test node.

[mtwelve]

So to elaborate, there's no way to test the resistance against anything quantum computing capable, due to technology not being there yet? So as of right now, this quantum resistance is theoretical if I read that correctly?

[inca]

So to elaborate, there's no way to test the resistance against anything quantum computing capable, due to technology not being there yet? So as of right now, this quantum resistance is theoretical if I read that correctly?

Not exactly. We already know what is susceptible: RSA, ECDSA etc. We know that the digital signature scheme backing bitcoin and ethereum etc are vulnerable.

There are several classes of 'quantum safe' signatures of which hash based signatures used in the QRL are the most promising.

Based upon existing mathematics if a sufficiently powerful quantum computer were created by a government then bitcoin (and everything else) would insecure but the QRL would not. But you are right that it is of course theoretical resistance because no such computer exists publicly to attack either chain and test out the hypothesis!

The idea with the QRL is to get crypto ready for this computer advance so we are ahead of the curve. 

[2c0de]

Try Nakamoto Hash Tube algorithm to sign blocks. If the full node signs two distinct blocks, the key strength collapses. This ensues that no fake histories are created.