The Ethereum Foundation (EF), the nonprofit organization supporting the development of Ethereum, has transformed years of post-quantum research into promoting public engineering, forming a dedicated post-quantum team and making this 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, the key person behind leanVM.
Drake positioned Lean VM as a core part of Ethereum’s broader approach to post-quantum security, arguing that the timeline is accelerating and Ethereum should move into the construction phase rather than continue working in the background.
Today marks a turning point in the Ethereum Foundation’s long-term quantum strategy.
We’ve assembled 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 encrypts…
— Justin Drake (@drakefjustin) January 23, 2026
The announcement comes as the crypto market has become more sensitive to headlines of quantum risk, even though the practical threat remains an age-old issue.
Quantum computing uses a new type of processor that could one day be able to break today’s encryption much faster than regular computers. Blockchain developers worry that wallet keys could eventually be exposed, forcing networks to upgrade their encryption well before that risk becomes a reality.
The bigger issue for large networks is not a single breakthrough moment, but the time it takes to ship a secure migration, update wallets, and migrate users to a new format without disrupting daily usage.
Drake outlined some short-term steps. Biweekly developer sessions focused on post-quantum transactions are scheduled to begin next month, led by Antonio Sanso. This agenda is aimed at user-side defense, including dedicated cryptographic tools within the protocol, account abstraction paths, and long-term work on transaction signature aggregation using leanVM.
EF also invests in cryptographic research. Drake said he would announce the $1 million Poseidon Prize to power Poseidon’s hash functions and pointed to another $1 million post-quantum initiative called the Proximity Prize.
On the engineering side, Drake said a multi-client post-quantum consensus development network is already up and running with multiple teams participating and holding weekly interoperability meetings to coordinate.
Ethereum also plans more community activities. Drake said EF will host a post-quantum event in October ahead of EthCC and a post-quantum day in late March, alongside educational activities such as video series and corporate materials.
Others in the ecosystem echoed the urgency. Pantera Capital XX Franklin Bi argued that while in traditional finance, system upgrades can take years, blockchain has the potential to orchestrate full-stack software transitions more quickly.
