Ethereum Foundation Expected to Complete Quantum-Safe Upgrade Before 2029

BlockBeats News, March 25 — The Ethereum Foundation released a new roadmap on Tuesday outlining how the development team is preparing for the threat of quantum computing. The Foundation’s quantum team expects a series of initial network upgrades to be completed before 2029, primarily involving four major hard forks.

The Foundation states that quantum computing will eventually break public key cryptography that protects ownership, authentication, and consensus in all digital systems, but this threat is not expected to arrive immediately. Researchers on the Foundation’s quantum team estimate that quantum computers capable of cryptographic tasks will not emerge for another 8 to 12 years.

Among the four hard forks, the “I” fork will provide quantum-safe public keys for network validators, while the “J” fork will reduce gas costs for verifying quantum-safe signatures. Both upgrades are included in the Hegota fork, expected later this year. The “L” fork will compress network state representations into zero-knowledge proofs, and the “M” fork will protect Layer 2 networks from quantum threats.

Researchers say that Layer 1 protocol upgrades can be completed before 2029, with a full execution layer migration taking additional years afterward. The Ethereum Foundation established a dedicated quantum team in January this year, and developer testnets began testing some quantum features in March.