EF researcher Justin Drake says a new post-quantum team will drive wallet safety upgrades, research prizes and test networks as quantum timelines shorten.
Updated Jan 24, 2026, 3:08 p.m. Published Jan 24, 2026, 5:45 a.m.
The Ethereum Foundation (EF), a nonprofit organization that supports Ethereum’s development, is turning its long running 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.
EF 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 rather than keep work in the background.
Today marks an inflection in the Ethereum Foundation’s long-term quantum strategy.
We’ve formed a new Post Quantum (PQ) team, led by the brilliant Thomas Coratger (@tcoratger). Joining him is Emile, one of the world-class talents behind leanVM. leanVM is the cryptographic…
— Justin Drake (@drakefjustin) January 23, 2026
The announcement comes as crypto markets have become more sensitive to quantum risk headlines, even if the practical threat remains a longer dated problem.
Quantum computing uses new types of processors that could one day break today’s encryption much faster than normal computers. Blockchain developers worry it could eventually expose wallet keys, forcing networks to upgrade cryptography well before that risk becomes real.
The bigger issue for large networks is not a single breakthrough moment but the time it takes to ship a safe transition, update wallets and move users onto new formats without breaking daily usage.
Drake outlined several near-term steps. A biweekly 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.
EF is also funding 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 multi-client post-quantum consensus dev networks are already running, with multiple teams participating and weekly interoperability calls to coordinate.
Ethereum also plans more community work.
Drake said the EF will host a post-quantum event in October and a post-quantum day in late March ahead of EthCC, alongside education efforts that include a video series and enterprise-focused materials.
Others in the ecosystem echoed the urgency. Pantera Capital general partner Franklin Bi said on X that traditional finance could take years to upgrade systems, while blockchains may be able to coordinate a full-stack software transition faster.
The post-quantum race begins.
My prediction:
People are over-estimating how quickly Wall Street will adapt to post-quantum cryptography. Like any systemic software upgrade, it’ll be slow & chaotic with single points of failure for years. Traditional systems are only as strong… https://t.co/6mEdFKcXrm
— Franklin Bi (@FranklinBi) January 23, 2026
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