Ethereum Prepares for Quantum Computers Without Hard Fork

The Ethereum Foundation's project lead, Nico, believes that Ethereum can prepare for the post-quantum era without undergoing a hard fork. According to Foresight News, Nico states that the work can be implemented under the current technical framework at a cost of $0.07. This approach has been reviewed by the Ethereum Foundation cryptography team, including Vitalik Buterin and Justin Drake.

Nico notes that the expected timeline for quantum computers to break ECDSA has moved earlier, increasing the urgency of deploying post-quantum signature schemes. He suggests that SPHINCS- could serve as a transitional option while waiting for protocol-layer aggregation solutions to be implemented.

The proposal includes a formal verification proof developed with the Verity framework for users interested in the Lean programming language. Nico also mentions that additional auditing work is expected to begin soon, following a review completed with Fable.