Vitalik proposes ‘quantum roadmap’ for Ethereum

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin proposed what he called a “quantum roadmap” on Thursday that could protect the blockchain from encryption-cracking computers.

That roadmap features several changes to parts of the blockchain that are vulnerable to quantum computers. It does not include a proposed timeline for those changes, though at least one proposed change is currently being considered for inclusion in an Ethereum upgrade expected to arrive in the latter half of 2026.

Quantum computers are still theoretical, but researchers’ rapid progress building them has frightened some blockchain engineers and even pro-crypto Wall Street executives.

It has roiled the Bitcoin community, which is divided over the urgency of the issue. Ethereum developers, however, have signalled they want to take a more proactive approach to the looming threat.

Buterin is among the most concerned. He warned in November that quantum computers could break Ethereum’s underlying security model before the next US presidential election in 2028.

His solutions to the quantum threat, all explained in highly technical jargon, include certain hash-based signatures, recursive STARKs, native account abstraction, and protocol-layer recursive signature and proof aggregation.

Put simply, they would update the cryptography that currently secures the blockchain. And at least one of those changes could arrive by the end of the year.

Hegota

Ethereum developers are currently debating which improvements should be included in a forthcoming upgrade dubbed Hegota.

Several weeks ago, Ethereum Foundation developer Felix Lange suggested that Hegota include frame transactions — a new type of transaction that would offer a more robust version of account abstraction.

“It’s also for us the most important one, because of the readiness for the post-quantum world,” Lange said.

“We feel like we have to get started with the off-ramp from ECDSA, and in order to do that, we need a comprehensive system that can deal with whatever signature algorithms we want to use.”

ECDSA is the acronym for the quantum-vulnerable cryptography that undergirds Ethereum currently.

Buterin previously suggested he supported including frame transactions in Hegota. On Thursday, he appeared to renew his push for the feature.

Adding frame transactions would give Ethereum users “first-class accounts that can use any signature algorithm,” including those that cannot be broken by quantum computers, Buterin wrote.

Other proposals in Buterin’s quantum roadmap require advances in computer science.

“It’s manageable, but there’s a lot of engineering work to do,” he wrote.

Quantum focus

Last month, the Ethereum Foundation said it had established a post-quantum team following “years of quiet R&D.”

The Swiss nonprofit would also host new, bi-weekly calls in which Ethereum developers would discuss quantum security and offer a new $1 million prize to anyone who can help harden quantum-resistant cryptography.

Foundation employees are also working on a website that will detail a post-quantum strategy for Ethereum that “targets a full transition in coming years with zero loss of funds and zero downtime,” according to researcher Justin Drake.

But support from Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation doesn’t necessarily mean Ethereum developers will go along, a point that Drake emphasised earlier this week when he released a “strawman roadmap” for the blockchain.

The “strawmap” it was named due to “the limits of drafting a roadmap in a highly decentralised ecosystem.”

“An ‘official’ roadmap reflecting all Ethereum stakeholders is effectively impossible,” Drake wrote, calling it “one reasonably coherent path among millions of possible outcomes.”

It details potential Ethereum upgrades through the end of the decade and features five focus areas, including quantum resistance.

Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi correspondent. You can contact him at aleks@dlnews.com.