The Ethereum Foundation (EF), a nonprofit organization supporting Ethereum’s development, is turning its long-running post-quantum research into a public engineering initiative, forming a dedicated post-quantum team and calling the effort a top strategic priority for the network.
Justin Drake, a researcher at EF, said the new group would be led by Thomas Coratger, with support from Emile, who Drake described as one of the key talents behind “leanVM.”
Drake has touted leanVM as a critical part of Ethereum’s broader approach to post-quantum security, arguing that timelines are accelerating and that Ethereum should move to a construction phase rather than keeping work in the background.
Today marks a shift 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). He is accompanied by 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 headlines about quantum risks, even though the practical threat remains an older issue.
Quantum computing uses new types of processors that could one day break current encryption much faster than normal computers. Blockchain developers fear that this could eventually expose wallet keys, forcing networks to upgrade cryptography long before this risk becomes real.
The biggest issue for large networks is not a watershed moment, but the time needed to ensure a safe transition, update wallets, and move users to new formats without interrupting daily use.
Drake outlined several short-term steps. A bi-weekly session for developers focused on post-quantum transactions is scheduled to begin next month, led by Antonio Sanso. The agenda targets user-facing defenses, including dedicated cryptographic tools within the protocol, account abstraction paths, and longer-term work on transaction signature aggregation using LeanVM.
EF also invests in cryptography research. Drake said he was announcing a million-dollar Poseidon Prize to strengthen the Poseidon hash function and highlighted another million-dollar post-quantum initiative called the Proximity Prize.
On the engineering side, Drake said post-quantum consensus multi-client development networks are already running, with multiple teams participating and weekly interoperability calls to coordinate.
Ethereum also plans more community work. Drake said the EF would host a post-quantum event in October and a post-quantum day in late March ahead of EthCC, alongside educational efforts including a video series and business-focused materials.
Other members of the ecosystem echoed the urgency. Pantera Capital XX Franklin Bi argued that traditional finance could take years to upgrade systems, while blockchains might be able to coordinate a complete software transition more quickly.
