The non-profit Ethereum Foundation has unveiled a roadmap to safeguard the network against quantum computers. The plan includes four hard forks.
Today, several teams at the EF are launching https://t.co/L9ZOUoRNNB, a dedicated resource for Ethereum’s post-quantum security effort.
What started with early STARK-based signature aggregation research in 2018 has grown into a coordinated, multi-team effort, all open source.…
— Ethereum Foundation (@ethereumfndn) March 24, 2026
Developers estimate that “cryptographically significant” devices will not emerge for another eight to 12 years. However, preparations must begin now.
“Quantum computing will eventually break the public-key cryptography that underpins ownership, authentication, and consensus in all digital systems. Work must begin long before the threat becomes a reality,” the foundation stated.
The Ethereum Foundation research team has proposed four key updates:
- Fork I will provide network validators with a public key that can be activated in the event of a sudden emergence of a quantum computer.
- Fork J will reduce gas costs for verifying secure signatures.
- Fork L will compress the network’s ability to express blockchain state in zero-knowledge proofs.
- Fork M will protect L2 networks from future quantum threats.
Developers are considering the first two updates for inclusion in the upcoming Hegota hard fork, expected this year.
Updates by Levels and Implementation Timeline
The transition will affect all three protocol levels:
- execution level will enable a shift to quantum-safe authentication through account abstraction without mandatory updates;
- consensus level will replace the validator signature scheme (BLS) with post-quantum alternatives, specifically hash-based signatures (leanXMSS). PQ signatures lack the native aggregation properties of BLS, so a SNARK-based aggregation approach using a minimal zkVM (leanVM) is being developed;
- data storage level will ensure post-quantum security for handling BLOB objects.
The Ethereum team plans to complete the network overhaul by 2029. However, full migration will take several more years.
In late February, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin announced a major update to encryption algorithms and transaction verification methods. All changes aim to protect Ethereum from the quantum threat.