Ethereum Foundation Drops Poseidon in Post-Quantum Plan
The Ethereum Foundation is moving away from the Poseidon hash function in its planned post-quantum architecture, according to researcher Justin Drake, as reported by Cointelegraph.
Drake said on Thursday that the foundation is abandoning Poseidon in favor of established alternatives such as SHA or BLAKE. A hash function converts data into a fixed digital fingerprint, allowing computers to verify that information has not been altered.
Poseidon had been under consideration for future post-quantum systems, including leanVM, which is designed to help Ethereum efficiently verify large volumes of blockchain activity. These systems have not yet been deployed on mainnet.
According to Drake, advances in SNARKs, compact proofs that confirm computations without repeating the underlying work, mean conventional hash functions can now perform efficiently enough to replace Poseidon in these planned systems.
Drake said a production-ready leanVM is targeted for 2027, with deployments across Ethereum’s consensus, data and execution layers expected in 2028. He cautioned that the timeline remains preliminary.
Eigen Labs founder and CEO Sreeram Kannan said established hash-based systems carry fewer known attack vectors than other post-quantum approaches and could be deployed faster given years of prior scrutiny.
Kannan added that joint work between the foundation and zero-knowledge proof company Succinct has increased proving speeds by 2.5 times.
Cointelegraph noted that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has separately outlined a broader quantum resistance roadmap for the network.
Based on reporting by cointelegraph.com.
