Monad researchers published a proposal that rethinks how blockchain accounts prove ownership. Kushal Babel and Jan Camenisch posted the draft to the Monad forum on August 21, 2026. Their design separates an account’s permanent address from the credentials that control it. As a result, users could replace a lost or outdated key and keep the same address. The draft targets three failures at once: key loss, key compromise, and aging cryptography.
A new MIP has been published: Flexible and Upgradeable Account Authentication
— Monad (@monad) August 24, 2026
Accounts can change their keys without changing their address
This lets accounts upgrade to quantum-resistant schemeshttps://t.co/Ajhnr3zwST
How the Proposal Separates Address From Key
Today, an Ethereum-style address derives directly from one secp256k1 public key. That binding is permanent, so the identity and the key cannot come apart. Monad’s draft breaks the link by deriving the address from a genesis configuration instead. The protocol then stores a separate AuthConfig record inside the account state. That record holds the current authenticator set, a signing policy, and a reconfiguration policy. Users can add, rotate, or retire authenticators while the address stays fixed. Each account record also gains an auth_config_root field beside nonce, balance, storage root, and code hash. A new AuthConfigManager precompile applies the changes and increments a config version to block replays.
Policies Turn Recovery Into a Protocol Rule
The design expresses permissions as threshold policies rather than a single signature check. A policy either names one authenticator or requires k signatures from a listed set. Importantly, the draft splits those policies in two for every account. A signing policy governs ordinary transactions, while a reconfiguration policy governs credential changes. One worked example lets either a main key or a passkey sign transactions. Meanwhile, the same account lets two guardians jointly install a replacement credential. Social recovery therefore becomes a protocol rule instead of custom contract logic. Supported schemes include ECDSA on secp256k1 and P-256, Ed25519, WebAuthn passkeys, ML-DSA, and a ZK-OAuth verifier.
Why Post-Quantum Migration Drives the Timing
ML-DSA appears on that list for a specific reason. Shor’s algorithm can recover an ECDSA private key from a public key. Researchers published updated resource estimates in March 2026 that lowered the hardware bar sharply. One optimized approach breaks 256-bit elliptic curve cryptography with under 500,000 physical qubits. Today’s best machines run roughly 1,000 to 1,200 physical qubits, so a wide gap remains. Still, forecasters put the odds of a capable quantum computer near one in six by 2035. Exposure matters here, because Ethereum reveals a public key on the first outgoing transaction. Analysts estimate that 50 to 65 percent of ether sits at addresses with revealed keys. Bitcoin holds roughly 1.7 million BTC in older P2PK outputs alone.
Rival Approaches Still Ask Users to Move
Other networks attack the same problem from different angles. Ethereum published a post-quantum roadmap in February 2026 covering consensus signatures, commitments, account signatures, and proofs. The Ethereum Foundation followed in March with a post-quantum hub spanning more than ten client teams. Its lean roadmap swaps BLS validator signatures for leanXMSS, a hash-based scheme. Solana developers shipped the Winternitz Vault, which generates a fresh key for every transaction. Bitcoin contributors advanced BIP-360, a Pay-to-Merkle-Root output type that drops the quantum-vulnerable key path. Notably, most of these designs still require users to move funds to new addresses. Monad’s draft upgrades the account in place instead.
How This Differs From Account Abstraction
Ethereum already offers two account abstraction paths, and neither solves this cleanly. ERC-4337 runs at the application layer through UserOperations and an EntryPoint contract. Users adopt a smart contract wallet, which usually means a new address and a migration. EIP-7702 shipped with the Pectra upgrade and added a SetCode transaction type. It lets an EOA temporarily delegate code to a contract without abandoning its address. However, the original ECDSA key still controls that delegation permanently. The Monad draft says account abstraction “still cannot retire the underlying ECDSA key.” Its authors abstract only the authentication layer and leave programmability alone. The design also honors 7702-style authorization tuples when a current key satisfies the signing policy.
Open Questions From Early Review
Forum reviewers raised practical concerns the draft has not settled. Moving signature verification off the EVM path breaks eth_call and gas estimation. One commenter warned that previews and gas estimation break without a defined skip-auth override. Protocols leaning on ecrecover, including Permit2, would need adaptation. Reviewers also asked for an eth_getAuthConfig RPC method and emitted events for indexers. Otherwise, every explorer and wallet would decode configurations by hand. Others flagged wallet support, since the new transaction type demands client changes. Additionally, the draft leaves conflict resolution undefined when two valid reconfigurations arrive together.
Where Monad Stands Today
Monad launched mainnet on November 24, 2025, after raising $244 million. Paradigm led a $225 million Series A before the network went live. The chain targets 10,000 transactions per second while holding EVM compatibility. Total value locked reached roughly $947 million on August 24, 2026, up from about $52 million at launch. The network has generated $35.9 million in fees since launch. MON traded near $0.029 that week following a 44 percent weekly gain. The authentication proposal remains a draft, though, and its authors deferred implementation. It must still clear Review, Last Call, and Final stages plus client implementations.
Some stats from yesterday pic.twitter.com/tw2iRDjFU8
— Monad (@monad) August 20, 2026
What to Watch Next
The draft matters less as a shipped feature and more as a design argument. Monad is claiming that authentication belongs in the protocol, not in wallet contracts. That framing sidesteps the migration burden every chain faces on quantum timelines. If it lands, users would upgrade their cryptography without touching a single asset. Watch for a reference implementation and answers to the tooling gaps reviewers identified.
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