QuantumProof Engineering • August 18, 2025 • 8 min read

Developer Guide: Testing PQ Signatures

Developers must validate PQ signatures today so operations teams can activate them tomorrow. The trick is doing it without disrupting legacy clients. This guide walks through recommended staging architecture, tooling, and sample tests.

1. Stand Up a Hybrid Verification Gateway

A gateway allows you to introduce PQ verification alongside classical signatures without touching production nodes. It proxies incoming requests, validates both signature families, and emits enriched telemetry.

// Pseudo-code for a verification adapter
function verifyHybrid(payload) {
  const { message, classicalSig, pqSig, algorithm } = payload;
  verifyEd25519(message, classicalSig);
  if (algorithm === 'dilithium3') {
    verifyDilithium3(message, pqSig);
  }
  emitMetric('verification.success', { algorithm });
}

2. Use Official Test Vectors

Import vectors from NIST and QuantumProof’s own validator set. Validate edge cases such as large payloads, malformed encoding, and zeroized keys.

Suite	Source	Coverage
Dilithium3	NIST PQC Round 4 vectors	Signature, key-gen, negative checks
Falcon-512	Open Quantum Safe project	Streaming verification under load
SPHINCS+-Fast	QuantumProof labs	Fallback path for high-latency flows

3. Run Soak Tests

Replay 24 hours of production traffic through the hybrid gateway. Compare latency profiles and failure modes.

k6 run pq-loadtest.js --vus 500 --duration 2m \
  -e PQ_GATEWAY_URL=https://pq-stage.example

Tip: Route telemetry into your observability stack. Alert on verification error rates above 0.5% and latency deltas above 15% vs baseline.

4. Wire into QuantumProof Validators

When ready, connect staging wallets to the QuantumProof testnet. Validators will co-sign requests and enforce protocol-level 2FA, giving you end-to-end realism before mainnet cutover.

By investing in PQ testing now, exchanges and custody desks can flip the switch with confidence when regulators call time on classical signatures.

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