Post-quantum Ethereum: Ethlabs wants the switch in 2027, not 2029

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On a wallet, the public key is a lock visible to everyone. The private key remains the only way to open it, and the elliptical curves make this path impassable for a classic computer.

However, a mature quantum computer could still navigate it, thanks to Shor's algorithm. The ECDSA signatures of the accounts would fall, as well as the BLS signatures of the consensus. In other words, it would be enough to read a public address to find the private address and empty the wallet that goes with it.

pqai27: Our view on post-quantum and post-AI timelines. We shared this on Ethereum Magicians as input into the Ethereum governance process. https://t.co/DuPudG2uGL pic.twitter.com/jAA8YuwDou

Ethlabs recalls that the American government has reduced its deadline for quantum risk from 2035 to 2030. Google is now targeting 2029 for its own systems. The threat seems distant, but its horizons are narrowing elsewhere.

The timetable retained so far by the Ethereum Foundation placed the full preparation of the network in December 2029. Moving forward to 2027 therefore amounts to short-circuiting two years of roadmap, as detailed in the securing of validators in the face of quantum.

In a post on the Ethereum Magicians forum, Ethlabs detailed its roadmap under the codename pqai27.

The group intends to go beyond the quantum subject alone: ​​it wants to make Ethereum a “post-AI” network, that is to say resistant to the cryptographic risks brought by AI.

A post-AI network would be based on cryptography built on as few assumptions as possible, and on hardened clients thanks to formal verification.

The argument relies on AI itself. Ethlabs points to recent models that have solved hundreds of open math problems, as well as around 1,000 vulnerabilities found in Linux.

And “the security of our cryptography is itself an open math problem,” according to the group. In other words, an AI could discover a breach even before the arrival of the quantum machine.

Concretely, the plan targets the pqai-ready level from 2027. The consensus would be protected, and users would have a post-quantum route for their accounts, with a network still limited in capacity.

Secondly, the pqai-scaled level would make Ethereum run at full speed with fully post-quantum transactions.

To finance this project, Ethlabs is renouncing quick slots, its own proposal for block acceleration planned in the Hegotá hard fork. Founded by former Ethereum Foundation researchers, the group focuses its resources on pqai27. In passing, he contradicts a priority that his own study attributed to the community.

The race against the quantum machine does not only concern Ethereum. Last October, the Quantum Alliance wanted to set the rules for the 6 million BTC exposed. If Ethlabs wins its case, the Ethereum switch would become the largest post-quantum project ever delivered in public.

An editorial article. Le Journal du Coin, the first French-speaking news media on cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and blockchain protocols.

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Machine-translated from French