Ethereum Foundation Prepares for Quantum Computing Threats with New Roadmap

The Ethereum Foundation has unveiled a new roadmap outlining how its development team plans to address the potential threats posed by quantum computing. According to Odaily, the foundation's quantum team anticipates that a series of initial network upgrades could be completed by 2029, involving four major hard forks. The foundation acknowledges that quantum computing could eventually compromise the public key cryptography that secures ownership, authentication, and consensus in all digital systems. However, they do not expect this threat to materialize immediately. Researchers from the foundation's quantum team estimate that quantum computers with cryptographic capabilities may emerge in 8 to 12 years. Among the four planned hard forks, the "I" fork will provide network validators with quantum-secure public keys, while the "J" fork aims to reduce the gas fees for verifying quantum-secure signatures. These upgrades are being considered for inclusion in the Hegota fork, expected later this year. The "L" fork will compress network state expressions into zero-knowledge proofs, and the "M" fork will protect Layer 2 networks from quantum threats. Researchers indicate that Layer 1 protocol upgrades could be completed by 2029, but a full migration of the execution layer will require additional years beyond that. The Ethereum Foundation established a dedicated quantum team in January, and a developer testnet began testing some quantum features in March.