Ethereum developers propose post-quantum overhaul for $100B-plus staking

Ethereum developers have proposed rebuilding the deposit contract used by every validator entering staking. The proposal targets the network's $100 billion-plus staking layer and aims to prepare it for post-quantum cryptography. The existing contract hardcodes BLS12-381 dimensions. It fixes public keys at 48 bytes and signature metadata at 96 bytes. The proposed replacement would accept keys of up to 8,192 bytes. It would also accept credential metadata of up to 8,192 bytes. Each deposit would identify its credential scheme. Scheme zero would represent BLS. The proposal assigns no other schemes. A future EIP would define post-quantum validator keys. The contract would have disabled, BLS-enabled, and BLS-retired modes. A system call that moves the contract to BLS retirement could not later restore BLS onboarding. The proposal would carry deposit data to the consensus layer. It would leave the cryptography for later specification. A coordinated fork across the execution and consensus layers would be required for activation. The draft awaits review from EIP editors. Its contract address, deployment code, and two activation timestamps remain undecided. Thomas Coratger, one of the three authors, said post-quantum cryptography is not a simple upgrade. Coratger summarized Stanford cryptographer Dan Boneh's view that Bitcoin and Ethereum are leaning toward hash-based signatures. Coratger said NIST-standardized stateless versions require roughly 8KB each. He also said compact alternatives include a counter that can expose a private key if a signer reuses it. The Ethereum Foundation assembled a team last year to plan the network's post-quantum transition. Project Eleven said the probability of a machine breaking elliptic curve signatures is better than even by 2033. Project Eleven said 2030 is possible. More than 65% of all ETH sits in addresses whose public keys are already exposed onchain, according to the firm's analysis.