Post-quantum migration deadlines are set by regulation and data shelf life, not by qubit counts. Here is why the two clocks decoupled, and what to do in the next twelve months.
ML-KEM, ML-DSA and SLH-DSA are finalised, and NIST has set 2030 and 2035 deadlines for retiring RSA and ECC. A practical guide to what changed and what to do first.
You do not need a quantum computer to break encryption in 2035. You need to record traffic in 2026 and wait. For data with a long confidentiality lifetime, the deadline is already here.
Every cryptographic algorithm we now consider broken was once the recommended choice. The durable engineering decision is not which primitive you pick, but whether you can replace it.
Proof of work, proof of stake, BFT and hash-based consensus face very different post-quantum migration problems. A comparison, and why the hardest part is governance.