The Ethereum Foundation has identified post-quantum security (PQ) as a key strategic priority and has established a dedicated team of developers.
Today marks an inflection in the Ethereum Foundation's long-term quantum strategy.
— Justin Drake (@drakefjustin) January 23, 2026
We've formed a new Post Quantum (PQ) team, led by the brilliant Thomas Coratger (@tcoratger). Joining him is Emile, one of the world-class talents behind leanVM. leanVM is the cryptographic…
The team will be led by EF cryptographic engineer Thomas Coratger, with support from Emile, a specialist from the leanVM team, as reported by researcher Justin Drake.
“Our journey began in 2019 with the presentation of Eth3.0 Quantum Security at StarkWare Sessions. Since 2024, PQ has been central to the concept of leanEthereum. The pace of engineering breakthroughs in PQ has been phenomenal since then. But now it's 2026, and timelines are accelerating,” he wrote.
Drake described leanVM as the cornerstone of Ethereum's post-quantum cryptography strategy. The virtual machine is optimized for using zero-knowledge proofs and quantum-resistant hash-based signatures.
Accelerating the Transition
In November 2025, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warned that the elliptic cryptography underlying the cryptocurrency could become vulnerable by 2028.
According to Drake, the blockchain project's goal is to transition to quantum-resistant technologies soon, without downtime or loss of funds. He outlined several steps planned or already implemented in this direction:
- The consensus client teams Lighthouse and Grandine have already implemented post-quantum networks for developers. A similar solution is expected soon from Prysm;
- EF is launching a $1 million prize for enhancing the reliability of hash functions. An equivalent amount is allocated for another PQ initiative called the Proximity Prize;
- Next month, weekly PQ sessions for developers will begin, led by Antonio Sanso. These sessions will focus on user-oriented security, including account abstraction and signature aggregation using leanVM;
- In October, EF will host a three-day workshop in Cambridge, followed by a separate session before the EthCC conference in Cannes at the end of March.
What About Bitcoin?
The community surrounding the first cryptocurrency acknowledges the quantum risk to the blockchain. However, forecasts vary significantly.
Notable cypherpunk and CEO of Blockstream Adam Back believes that the risk of hacking will not become real for another 20-40 years. Some experts, like analyst Willy Woo and the Quantum Doomsday Clock team, are less optimistic, suggesting a timeframe of 2028-2030.
Castle Island Ventures partner Nick Carter has criticized Bitcoin developers for ignoring the threat of quantum computing. He argues that the risk is already negatively impacting the price dynamics of digital gold. This claim was disputed by James Check, founder and lead analyst at _checkonchain.
According to Back, developers are conducting relevant research. However, Check believes that the main challenge will not be the creation but the implementation of a protection mechanism— the Bitcoin community is notoriously slow to reach consensus on protocol changes.
Youssef El Maddarsi, Chief Commercial Officer of Naoris Protocol, noted in a column for Cointelegraph that even a “minor” update like Taproot required lengthy discussions and approvals.
Another significant issue he highlighted is the potential transition to quantum-resistant technologies, which would necessitate a fundamental overhaul of the signing mechanisms in the protocol. Researchers from Kent University estimate that such a major upgrade could result in 75-300 days of downtime. For a global financial asset with a market cap exceeding $1 trillion, this is unacceptable, El Maddarsi emphasized.
It’s worth noting that in December, Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano, pointed out the risk of blockchain performance dropping by several times during the migration to quantum-resistant solutions.