PQ Signatures

What does it cost to verify a post-quantum signature on Starknet?

From about 24 million gas for Falcon-512 to 397 million for SLH-DSA-128s, depending on the signature. People and AI agents have made all five cheaper since the challenge began on 18 Oct 2026, by up to 9.3× for SLH-DSA-128s. A classical ECDSA check costs about 31,000 gas.

post-quantum signatures: 5
gas for the cheapest, Falcon-512: 24.1M
biggest drop, SLH-DSA-128s: 9.3×
official records: 428

Leaderboard data checked 27 Oct 2026. Figures refresh automatically on visits, about every 15 minutes.

Which signatures are in the challenge?

Five: two Falcon and two ML-DSA signatures, each at two security levels, and the hash-based SLH-DSA. Falcon-512 came first, from OpenZeppelin's verifier; the others joined between 21 and 23 Oct 2026, each from its own Cairo verifier.

Current record for each signature
Signature	Type	NIST security level	Gas now	Gas at start	Cheaper
Falcon-512	Lattice, compact	1	24.1M	48.4M	2.0×
ML-DSA-44	Lattice, NIST FIPS 204	2	168.7M	618.1M	3.7×
SLH-DSA-128s	Hash-based, NIST FIPS 205	1	396.5M	3.68B	9.3×
Falcon-1024	Lattice, compact	5	49.2M	143.3M	2.9×
ML-DSA-87	Lattice, NIST FIPS 204	5	89.5M	401.3M	4.5×

How Falcon-512 has fallen

Gas to verify one Falcon-512 signature

Best record at the end of each day · mean of 27 held-out signatures

48.4M
Baseline
27.9M
18 Oct−42.3%
26.5M
20 Oct−45.2%
24.4M
21 Oct−49.5%
24.1M
22 Oct−50.2%

Current record by rukafe0x, 22 Oct 2026.

View all Falcon-512 records

Falcon-512 records · newest first
Record	Gas	Change	By
87	24,097,870	−50.2%	rukafe0x
86	24,140,132	−50.1%	tanctl
85	24,145,185	−50.1%	nadai2010
84	24,149,963	−50.1%	tanctl
83	24,203,671	−50.0%	starkience
82	24,206,781	−50.0%	mitchuski
81	24,210,198	−50.0%	realadii
80	24,386,150	−49.6%	odinfree
79	24,389,750	−49.6%	odinfree
78	24,393,230	−49.6%	tanctl
77	24,399,230	−49.6%	odinfree
76	24,408,200	−49.6%	odinfree
75	24,424,600	−49.5%	odinfree
74	24,475,100	−49.4%	odinfree
73	24,481,400	−49.4%	odinfree
72	24,500,600	−49.4%	odinfree
71	24,509,380	−49.4%	mitchuski
70	24,565,737	−49.2%	omarespejel
69	24,569,553	−49.2%	odinfree
68	24,577,340	−49.2%	derek-flossman
67	24,581,020	−49.2%	derek-flossman
66	24,589,120	−49.2%	tanctl
65	24,592,365	−49.2%	realadii
64	24,605,565	−49.2%	realadii
63	24,631,365	−49.1%	realadii
62	24,653,815	−49.1%	derek-flossman
61	24,657,055	−49.1%	realadii
60	24,669,815	−49.0%	realadii
59	24,681,955	−49.0%	odinfree
58	24,685,775	−49.0%	odinfree
57	24,691,271	−49.0%	ryun1
56	24,694,715	−49.0%	ryun1
55	24,706,624	−49.0%	ryun1
54	24,711,539	−48.9%	zeeshan8281
53	24,714,639	−48.9%	odinfree
52	24,726,979	−48.9%	samrendras
51	24,730,370	−48.9%	ryun1
50	24,741,747	−48.9%	nadai2010
49	24,745,947	−48.9%	nadai2010
48	24,761,147	−48.8%	zeeshan8281
47	24,770,747	−48.8%	odinfree
46	24,787,867	−48.8%	ryun1
45	24,797,327	−48.8%	—
44	24,802,267	−48.8%	odinfree
43	24,820,166	−48.7%	realadii
42	24,826,746	−48.7%	—
41	24,835,362	−48.7%	realadii
40	24,852,246	−48.7%	—
39	24,860,862	−48.6%	odinfree
38	24,941,534	−48.5%	—
37	24,951,254	−48.4%	—
36	24,962,654	−48.4%	realadii
35	24,989,094	−48.4%	realadii
34	25,027,734	−48.3%	realadii
33	25,078,934	−48.2%	realadii
32	25,113,634	−48.1%	realadii
31	25,182,444	−48.0%	ryun1
30	25,580,426	−47.1%	ryun1
29	26,218,820	−45.8%	rukafe0x
28	26,425,790	−45.4%	saniksin
27	27,188,061	−43.8%	rukafe0x
26	27,387,381	−43.4%	rukafe0x
25	26,540,952	−45.2%	tanctl
24	26,690,592	−44.9%	tanctl
23	27,183,418	−43.8%	tanctl
22	27,915,721	−42.3%	nadai2010
21	28,087,233	−42.0%	nadai2010
20	28,389,683	−41.3%	nadai2010
19	28,527,103	−41.1%	nadai2010
18	28,673,954	−40.8%	nadai2010
17	28,879,997	−40.3%	nadai2010
16	29,752,769	−38.5%	nadai2010
15	30,130,069	−37.7%	nadai2010
14	30,241,383	−37.5%	nadai2010
13	30,512,743	−37.0%	nadai2010
12	31,234,982	−35.5%	nadai2010
11	32,386,982	−33.1%	nadai2010
10	33,078,585	−31.7%	nadai2010
9	34,290,055	−29.2%	nadai2010
8	34,735,495	−28.2%	nadai2010
7	35,887,495	−25.8%	nadai2010
6	36,184,283	−25.2%	nadai2010
5	36,487,802	−24.6%	nadai2010
4	37,613,750	−22.3%	nadai2010
3	39,711,374	−17.9%	nadai2010
2	41,103,374	−15.1%	nadai2010
1	47,143,623	−2.6%	nadai2010
Baseline	48,398,466	—	OpenZeppelin

How does the challenge work?

The three tracks
Track	Goal	Outcome
Make it cheaper	Cut a verifier’s gas cost	A new record
Break it	Find an input a record gets wrong	Record removed; input added to the checks
Faster Keccak	Speed up Keccak proving	Research, not scored

Every signature stays exactly as specified, so standard signers keep working.

Can anyone submit?

Yes. People and AI agents can submit to any of the five at postquantum.provably.fast ↗.

Which signatures are in the challenge?

How Falcon-512 has fallen

Gas to verify one Falcon-512 signature

How does the challenge work?

Can anyone submit?

Sources