The best time to migrate off ECDSA was the day NIST finalized the lattice standards. The second-best time is today. Migrating under deadline pressure is how mistakes happen — migrating at your own pace is how they don't.

The habit that makes migration painless: sign hybrid. Add a dilithium signature alongside every ECDSA one, verify both, and retire ECDSA only when the last consumer is ready.

why hybrid is the answer

Hybrid mode gives you quantum safety the moment you turn it on, and keeps every legacy integration working. There's no cutover, no cliff, no "we're down for migration." It's a ratchet — each step more secure than the last.

start with what's long-lived

Migrate the keys that need to survive for years first: custody, cold storage, bridges, protocol treasury. The things a "harvest now, decrypt later" attacker is already targeting. Then let the rest follow.