IKP: PQC Migration
Session Overview
First of two IKP working sessions on the PQC Migration Prize Competition (hosted by METI/NEDO; BGIN coordinates and runs the neutral evaluation testbed). Picks up from the opening keynote on crypto agility and walks through the public competition repository — core outcomes, the draft evaluation metrics register, the testbed scheme register and bench harness — then puts the open evaluation questions to the room.
The PQC Migration Prize Competition
A multi-year (2026–2028), internationally open prize competition on post-quantum cryptography migration for public blockchains, hosted by the Japanese Government (METI/NEDO). BGIN coordinates internationally and runs the neutral evaluation testbed (BSafe.network concept). The hard problem on public chains is deployment, evaluation, testbeds, and migration governance — not selecting new PQC primitives: the competition starts from NIST process outputs (ML-DSA and related), and NIST is the algorithm and parameter authority, not a competition lane.
Pathway
1
Competition & evaluation
Transparent, reproducible evaluation on a geographically distributed neutral testbed (2026–2028)
2
BGIN Standard
Evaluation results and practice consolidated into a candidate BGIN Standard
3
ISO/TC 307
Via BGIN’s Category A liaison
4
Japan crypto-asset security criteria
The host’s channel into national criteria
Workshop series · Sep 2026 → Feb 2027
- W1Sep 2026 — Kickoff: repository chartered, core outcomes, committee nominations opened
- W2Oct 2026 · Block 15 — Committee seated (Phase A); metrics v0 → v1; scheme scope rulings
- W3Nov 2026 — Testbed: harness interface, reference CPU class, COI policy, node-host call
- W413 Dec 2026 · SSR, Baltimore — Rubric v1; “PQC-ready chain” definition; call-text input package to METI/NEDO
- W5Jan 2027 — Pilot nodes running reference runs
- W6Feb 2027 · CoDecFin at FC’27 — Retrospective; BGIN Standard outline v0
Agenda
- From the keynote to the competition: crypto agility as the thing being evaluated — deployment, evaluation, testbeds, and migration governance on live public chains, not new primitives
- Tour of the public competition repository: governance, core outcomes O1–O6, the 22-metric evaluation register (draft v0), testbed scheme register and harness specification
- Resource estimates and the ECDSA.fail community: what the benchmark numbers mean for migration timelines and for judging criteria
- Open question: is the headline quantity total overhead or migration speed?
- Open question: who must upgrade first — node operators or users — and how the metrics reflect that burden split
- Open question: scoring the legitimate-owner-versus-attacker race during a migration window
- Tagging each metric by the attack class it defends against — on-spend, at-rest, on-setup (the GDC26 taxonomy)
Session Chair & Speakers
Session Chair
Mitchell Travers (Co-Chair, IKP)
Speakers
Kanta Matsuura, Tadahiko Itoh
Related Documents
PQC Migration Prize — competition repository (public record)
Type: Repository
Workshop roadmap W1–W6 (Block 15 = W2)
Type: Roadmap
Evaluation metrics register (draft v0) and open questions
Type: Draft
Core outcomes O1–O6 (draft v0)
Type: Draft
Testbed scheme register
Type: Specification
GDC26 PQC migration meeting report (3 Sep 2026)
Type: Meeting report
Competition discussion on the BGIN Discourse
Type: Discussion
Venue
Location: Capitol Campus — Room A (2416)
Address: 111 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20001, United States
Georgetown University Capitol Campus · Washington, D.C.
Access & venue details →Working Group
Identity, Key Management & Privacy
Focuses on identity management, key management strategies, and privacy-preserving technologies
- Mitchell Travers
- Nat Sakimura
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