Ethereum post-quantum security transition

The Ethereum Foundation is advancing its roadmap toward post-quantum cryptography to mitigate long-term risks from future quantum computing threats.

Initially, the foundation evaluated the Poseidon hash function for potential base-layer upgrades due to its efficiency in zero-knowledge (ZK) proof systems. However, following a year of evaluation and concerns regarding potential security vulnerabilities like preimage attacks, the foundation shifted its strategy. Researchers noted that advancements in compact proofs have diminished Poseidon’s performance advantages, leading the foundation to favor more established and well-audited standards such as SHA and BLAKE3.

To further this transition, the foundation launched ‘better. codes’, a collaborative research platform developed with Yukon and zkSecurity. This platform utilizes artificial intelligence to advance the security of hash-based SNARKs, specifically focusing on the koalaIRS12 Reed–Solomon proximity problem. By using AI agents to refine soundness bounds and employing machine-verified security checks via the Lean kernel, the initiative aims to establish a 128-bit security benchmark for hash-based alternatives to current elliptic-curve-based primitives.