QRL is two chains running in parallel: QRL Legacy and QRL 2.0. They share a goal — quantum-resistant cryptography — but differ in almost every mechanism. This guide lays them side by side.
The one-line summary
- QRL Legacy — the original chain (2018), mined, hash-based signatures, no smart contracts. Becoming a read-only archive.
- QRL 2.0 — the successor, staked, lattice signatures, EVM smart contracts. The future home of the project.
They're two stages of one project, not competitors.
Side by side
| QRL Legacy | QRL 2.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Original mainnet → read-only archive | Current + future main chain |
| Consensus | Proof-of-Work (mining) | Proof-of-Stake (staking) |
| Signature | XMSS (hash-based, stateful) | ML-DSA-87 (lattice, stateless) |
| Smart contracts | No (fixed transaction types) | Yes (EVM-compatible) |
| Address length | 79 characters | 41 characters |
| Mining algorithm | QRandomX | — (not mined) |
| Reward mechanism | Mined block reward | Validator withdrawals |
| RPC style | gRPC | JSON-RPC (qrl_*) |
What's the same
Despite all those differences, the core identity holds across both chains:
- Quantum resistance. Both sign with post-quantum schemes — there's no quantum-vulnerable window on either.
- The
Qprefix. Both write addresses starting withQ(tell them apart by length). - One project. QRL 2.0 succeeds QRL Legacy; they're not separate ecosystems.
How they relate
QRL 2.0 is the successor to QRL Legacy. The plan is for value to move from the old chain to the new one through a migration, after which QRL Legacy settles into the role of a permanent, read-only archive — its full history stays viewable here, but new activity happens on QRL 2.0.
Importantly, Legacy is not deleted or sunset. Anyone who wants to trace the project's history, or verify old balances, can always do so. The explorer keeps both chains first-class for exactly this reason.
How Quantascan presents them
This explorer treats the two chains separately and honestly:
- QRL 2.0 lives at the bare URLs (
/blocks,/address/…); QRL Legacy lives under a/qrl-legacy/prefix. - A chain switcher in the header flips between them.
- Cross-chain views (like the richlist and supply) combine both while always keeping track of which chain each figure belongs to.
Where to go next
- The QRL → QRL 2.0 migration — how value moves between them.
- QRL address formats — the 79- vs 41-character split.
- Proof-of-Work vs Proof-of-Stake — the consensus difference.