Ethereum Researcher Pushes for Quantum Safe Network by 2028, Ahead of Official Schedule

Justin Drake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, told the crowd at Devcon 8 in Mumbai on Tuesday that he hopes the network can finish its move to post-quantum and post-AI security by December 2028. That is a full year ahead of the foundation’s own target. Developers would have about 24 months to ship three more network upgrades to reach it.

How It Compares With the Foundation Roadmap

The foundation’s September plan set December 2029 as the deadline for making Ethereum’s execution, consensus and data layers quantum resistant. Drake’s comments show a bolder goal but do not replace that plan, which is due for review in January 2027. In August he described production-ready leanVM technology arriving in 2027, with post-quantum rollouts across all three layers during 2028.

Developer Scrutiny and Starknet’s Alternative

Not everyone is convinced the schedule is realistic. Other blockchain developers have questioned it, and in October the Starknet community supported research into becoming its own independent post-quantum layer-1 network.