Tezos Activates Ushuaia Upgrade, Boosting Scalability and Quantum Readiness

Tezos has activated its 21st protocol upgrade, introducing a major increase in network capacity while laying the groundwork for future features including liquid staking and quantum-resistant cryptography.

The Ushuaia upgrade was deployed through Tezos' on-chain governance process without a hard fork or network disruption, continuing the blockchain's long-running approach of evolving through community-approved protocol upgrades rather than contentious chain splits.

Developed by Nomadic Labs, Trilitech and Functori, Ushuaia represents another milestone in the broader Tezos X roadmap, which is focused on scaling the network for high-performance decentralized applications.

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More Bandwidth for the Next Generation of Apps

The most significant change introduced by Ushuaia is a major expansion of Tezos' Data Availability Layer (DAL).

Following the upgrade, DAL bandwidth has increased to 10 MB per second, allowing applications to publish roughly 15 times more data than before.

The improvement removes one of the key bottlenecks facing blockchain applications that rely on large amounts of data, including gaming, high-frequency DeFi, social applications and Ethereum-compatible rollups such as Etherlink.

Rather than increasing hardware requirements, the additional capacity comes from software optimizations and protocol improvements while maintaining the network's existing security and decentralization model.

"With Ushuaia, Tezos Layer 1 does exactly what a modern settlement layer should do: increase data availability for the applications arriving with Tezos X, while preparing the cryptographic migration path long before quantum risk becomes urgent," said Yann Régis-Gianas, Head of Engineering at Nomadic Labs.

The upgrade also introduces dynamic DAL attestation, allowing applications such as Etherlink to process operations—including fast withdrawals—more efficiently.

Preparing for a Post-Quantum Future

Beyond today's performance improvements, Ushuaia also introduces technology designed for tomorrow's security challenges.

While not yet activated on mainnet, the upgrade includes support on testnet for post-quantum cryptography using the ML-DSA-44 digital signature standard recently selected by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The feature is intended to prepare Tezos for a future where advances in quantum computing could eventually threaten today's cryptographic systems.

"Among other improvements, Ushuaia marks the first step in a timely transition to post quantum cryptography, a change every blockchain will need to undergo," said Arthur Breitman, co-founder of Tezos.

By introducing quantum-resistant signatures years before they are likely to become necessary, Tezos is beginning what developers expect will be a gradual transition toward post-quantum security.

Liquid Staking Moves Closer

Another feature arriving on testnet is enshrined liquid staking.

The proposed mechanism would allow users to stake XTZ directly through a protocol-recognized smart contract while receiving sTEZ, a liquid staking token that appreciates in value as staking rewards accumulate.

Unlike traditional staking, users would be able to continue participating in DeFi while their assets remain staked, without relying on centralized providers.

The feature is still under development and will continue undergoing community testing before any future mainnet activation.

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Tezos Continues to Evolve Without Forks

Since launching, Tezos has become known for its ability to upgrade itself through on-chain governance, allowing new functionality to be introduced without splitting the network.

Ushuaia is the blockchain's 21st successful protocol upgrade, demonstrating the governance model that has long differentiated Tezos from many other Layer 1 networks.

As blockchain competition increasingly shifts toward scalability, interoperability and long-term security, the latest upgrade reflects Tezos' strategy of continuously improving the protocol while preparing for emerging technologies such as quantum computing and next-generation decentralized applications.

For developers building data-intensive applications, Ushuaia delivers more capacity today while laying the technical foundation for the next phase of the Tezos ecosystem.