The Ethereum Foundation presented a staged roadmap aiming to prepare the protocol for quantum-era threats by 2029.

Overview and motivation

Developers expect cryptographically significant quantum devices in 8–12 years, while planning to finish core preparations by 2029.

The initiative covers consensus and execution layers and includes multiple hard forks to introduce post-quantum primitives and operational changes.

Planned hard forks and features

• Fork I and Fork J will allow validators to enable reserve public keys and reduce gas costs for verifying protected signatures.
• Those first updates may be rolled out this year as part of the Hegota hard fork, subject to community coordination and testing.
• Fork L and Fork M focus on data compression via zero-knowledge proofs and improving Layer‑2 resilience against cryptographic attacks.

Consensus-layer changes

The plan replaces standard BLS signatures at consensus with post-quantum alternatives such as leanXMSS, requiring new aggregation approaches.

Because post-quantum signatures are harder to aggregate, the team proposes a specialized aggregation mechanism built on leanVM.

Execution-layer and user transition

At execution level, account abstraction will let users adopt quantum-safe authentication methods without mandatory client updates.

Storage of large binary objects (BLOB) will also receive enhanced cryptographic protections to reduce long‑term exposure to future attackers.

Timeline and migration

Core engineering work is expected to conclude in about three years, while full migration of all users and contracts will extend for several years after 2029.

The phased approach aims to limit disruption and provide tooling for gradual key rotation and compatibility across ecosystem participants.

Announcement

The roadmap was announced publicly by Vitalik Buterin as part of the Foundation’s effort to future‑proof Ethereum against advances in computational capabilities.