NEAR Protocol Deploys NIST-Certified Post-Quantum Signature Scheme FIPS-204 on Mainnet with Version 2.13 Upgrade

According to Foresight News, NEAR Protocol completed its mainnet 2.13 upgrade today, deploying the NIST-certified post-quantum signature scheme FIPS-204 (ML-DSA), making it one of the first Layer 1 blockchains to implement quantum-resistant signing in production. Accounts can now rotate keys to quantum-safe algorithms to protect against future quantum computing threats.

The upgrade also launched Dynamic Resharding functionality, enabling the network to automatically expand by splitting a shard when it reaches a preset state size threshold without manual intervention or protocol voting. The resharding process completes within approximately 1.5 epochs, with NEAR Intents and near.com scaling automatically on demand.