Qwai is a layer 1 blockchain with no elliptic-curve cryptography anywhere in it. Every account and every validator signs with post-quantum keys, and every block is final the moment it is made.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and nearly every other chain protect coins with elliptic-curve signatures. A large enough quantum computer running Shor's algorithm can work out the private key from the public one. Qwai never used them.
Cryptography rests on math problems believed to be hard. As AI systems get better at mathematics, the risk is a problem that stops being hard. Qwai is built on the assumption that this can happen.
Post-quantum signatures are large, so Qwai was designed around them: signatures are checked in parallel and carried apart from the transactions they sign.
Signed transactions verified and applied each second on one 8-core laptop.
To finality. A block agreed by the validators is never undone.
One billion QWAI, fixed. Fees go to the validators who secure the chain.
Written in Rust, compiled to RISC-V, metered instruction by instruction. A failed call undoes everything it did.
Validators stake QWAI and take turns proposing blocks by stake. Signing two ways costs 5% of the stake and the seat.
An address is not tied to one key. Swap or add keys at any time and keep the same address, coins and tokens.
Every balance comes with a proof against the signed state, so an app can check what a server tells it.
Qwai