Q-Day Readiness | Interstellar

Y2K broke date logic. Q-Day could break digital trust itself.

Q-Day is the day a quantum computer becomes powerful enough to break the public-key cryptography — RSA and elliptic-curve — that protects payments, digital signatures, identities and financial communications. Every Interstellar platform is built with this in mind, and Interstellar takes institutions from awareness to a controlled, tested migration, with a clear plan for 2030 and 2035.

The risk

Timelines converging across every major authority

<1M

Qubits now estimated to break RSA-2048 — down from ~20M in 2019

28–49%

Chance of a cryptographically relevant quantum computer within 10 years

51–70%

Chance within 15 years — Global Risk Institute, 2026

The threat is already here. Attackers can record encrypted traffic today and decrypt it later — “harvest now, decrypt later.” Data that must stay confidential for years is exposed now. Migration takes years: it touches every system, certificate, key, hardware security module, vendor and counterparty.

If the years your data must stay secret, plus the years migration takes, exceed the years until Q-Day, you must act now.

The deadlines are set

Authority	Reference	Requirement
NIST	FIPS 203, 204, 205 · IR 8547	Standards final since August 2024. Today’s public-key algorithms deprecated after 2030, disallowed after 2035.
G7 Cyber Expert Group	January 2026	Financial sector: critical systems around 2030–2032, full transition by 2035.
European Union	June 2025	National plans by end-2026; high-risk systems by 2030; the rest by 2035.
UK NCSC	March 2025	Discovery by 2028; priority migration by 2031; complete by 2035.
BIS	Project Leap · Paper 158	Post-quantum signatures tested in a live payment system, December 2025. Start now: inventory, agility, hybrid, phased migration.

What breaks, what to use instead

TodayRSA, Diffie-Hellman, ECDHKey exchange

Replace withML-KEMFIPS 203 · hybrid first

TodayRSA, ECDSA, EdDSASignatures, certificates, blockchains

Replace withML-DSA / SLH-DSAFIPS 204 / FIPS 205

TodayAES-256, SHA-2, SHA-3Symmetric encryption & hashing

UnchangedUnchangedRemain secure — use AES-256 for long-lived data

The service

From awareness to controlled migration

01Weeks 0–12

Q-Day Readiness Assessment

Board and executive briefing; a full cryptographic inventory — every system, protocol, certificate, key, HSM, device and vendor — delivered as a cryptographic bill of materials; risk prioritisation by data lifetime; vendor and HSM readiness review.

Readiness scorecard and risk register

02Months 3–6

Migration Strategy and Roadmap

Target architecture built on cryptographic agility and hybrid protection; a roadmap aligned to NIST, G7, BIS and national timelines; procurement requirements so every new system is post-quantum ready; governance, budget and board reporting.

A funded, owned migration roadmap

03Months 6–12

PQC Pilot Lab

Hands-on pilots in an isolated sandbox — hybrid TLS, post-quantum message signing, HSM integration, PKI and certificate chains — measured for performance, message size and interoperability with counterparties and rails.

Tested designs and evidence for decision-makers

04Months 12–24+

Controlled Migration

Phased migration of critical channels first: API gateways, message signing, PKI, inter-site replication, audit archives and code signing, with interoperability testing across institutions and rails.

Progress metrics and supervisory reporting

05Ongoing

Sector Programmes for Regulators

For central banks and supervisors: authorise, convene, pilot — national readiness assessment, supervisory guidance, industry working groups, sector-wide sandbox pilots, regional coordination to keep cross-border payments interoperable.

A coordinated national transition

06Ongoing

Training

Programmes for boards, risk, engineering and security teams.

An organisation that can sustain the migration

Ongoing partnership

Built in, not bolted on

Universal Wallet Infrastructure and the Interstellar Stargate ledger treat algorithms as configuration, not code. A cryptographic inventory ships with every deployment, and the client decides the migration sequence.

Gateway sessionsML-KEM · FIPS 203

Message & validator signaturesML-DSA · FIPS 204

Long-lived archivesSLH-DSA · FIPS 205

Inter-site replicationHybrid · Classical + post-quantum

Who it is for

Central banks and regulators

National readiness, supervisory guidance, sector pilots

Payment-system operators and switches

RTGS, instant payments, card and mobile money networks

Commercial banks

Core, channels, PKI, HSMs and vendors

Stablecoin and digital-asset issuers

Ledger keys, signatures and long-lived records

Fintechs and payment service providers

APIs, apps and cloud services

Why Interstellar

Builders of quantum-ready financial infrastructure

Universal Wallet Infrastructure and Stargate are designed for cryptographic agility from day one.

Proven in African finance

PACM; cNGN, Africa’s first licensed regulated stablecoin; pilots with commercial banks; founding member of the African Stablecoin Consortium.

Deep experience

A pan-African team with global experience, and blockchain and distributed-ledger pioneers since 2009.

Vendor-neutral advice

Grounded in NIST standards and open technology — not tied to any single HSM or PKI supplier.

Questions every board should ask

Where do we depend on quantum-vulnerable cryptography?

Which of our data must stay confidential beyond 2035?

Are our vendors and HSMs ready, and can they prove it?

Is migration funded, owned and tracked?

Are we testing with our counterparties, not only internally?

If any answer is “we don’t know”, start with a Q-Day Readiness Assessment.

Request a Q-Day Readiness Assessment About the Stargate ledger

Sources: NIST FIPS 203/204/205 and IR 8547; G7 Cyber Expert Group (2026); EU coordinated PQC roadmap (2025); UK NCSC (2025); BIS Paper 158 and Project Leap; Global Risk Institute Quantum Threat Timeline Report 2025. Status as at November 2026.