The Ethereum Foundation (EF), a nonprofit that supports Ethereum’s development, is turning its long-standing post quantum research into a public engineering push, forming a dedicated Post Quantum team and calling the effort a top strategic priority for the network.
EC researcher Justin Drake said the new group will be led by Thomas Coratger, with support from Emile, who Drake described as a key talent behind “leanVM.”
Drake framed leanVM as a core part of Ethereum’s broader approach to post-quantum security, arguing that timelines are accelerating and that Ethereum should move into a build phase instead of keeping work in the background.
Today marks a bend in the Ethereum Foundation’s long-term quantum strategy.
We have formed a new Post Quantum (PQ) team, led by the brilliant Thomas Coratger (@tcoratger). Together with him is Emile, one of the world-class talents behind leanVM. leanVM is the cryptographic…
— Justin Drake (@drakejustin) 23 January 2026
The announcement comes as crypto markets have grown more sensitive to quant risk headlines, although the practical threat remains a more dated issue.
Quantum computing uses new types of processors that may one day break today’s encryption much faster than normal computers. Blockchain developers worry that it could eventually expose wallet keys, forcing networks to upgrade cryptography well before this risk becomes real.
The biggest problem for large networks is not a single moment of breakthrough, but the time it takes to send a secure transition, update wallets and move users to new formats without disrupting daily use.
Drake outlined several steps in the short term. A two-week developer session focused on post quantum transactions is expected to start next month, led by Antonio Sanso. The agenda is aimed at user-facing defenses, including dedicated cryptographic tools inside the protocol, account abstraction paths, and longer-term work on aggregating transaction signatures using leanVM.
The EC also puts money behind cryptography research. Drake said it is announcing a $1 million Poseidon Prize to harden the Poseidon hash function and pointed to another $1 million post quantum initiative called the Proximity Prize.
On the engineering side, Drake said the multi-client post-quantum consensus development network is already running, with multiple teams participating and weekly interoperability calls to coordinate.
Ethereum is also planning more community work. Drake said EF will host a post-quantum event in October and a post-quantum day in late March ahead of EthCC, alongside educational efforts that include a video series and business-focused materials.
Others in the ecosystem echoed the urgency. Pantera Capital XX Franklin Bi argued that traditional finance can take years to upgrade systems, while blockchains may be able to coordinate a full-stack software transition more quickly.
