Ethereum developers working on quantum-resistant deposit contract

Ethereum developers have submitted a proposal for a new deposit contract designed to withstand attacks from quantum computers. The proposal introduces a flexible system that can operate alongside the existing cryptographic system, but is designed to eventually replace it entirely. The Ethereum price stands at $2.488,58 at the time of writing, up 1.5% over the past 24 hours.

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At a glance:

• Ethereum developers propose a quantum-resistant deposit contract as the successor to the current BLS system.
• The new design supports variable key lengths and uses scheme identifiers to distinguish between different cryptographic systems.
• An irreversible migration switch controls when new BLS deposits are disabled.

Replacing BLS through a controlled transition

The proposal, submitted via a pull request on GitHub, describes a deposit contract that supports public keys of variable length and can include metadata. Through so-called scheme identifiers, the system can distinguish between different cryptographic methods. Scheme 0 is reserved for existing BLS deposits, preserving backward compatibility.

The current deposit contract uses a Merkle tree structure. The new proposal replaces that mechanism with execution-layer requests based on EIP-7685. This makes the architecture more flexible and better suited to future changes to the cryptographic system.

Irreversible switch as the final step of the migration

A notable element of the proposal is an irreversible migration switch. The switch allows new BLS deposits to remain permitted for the time being, and then permanently disables them once Ethereum has fully transitioned to quantum-resistant signatures. Once activated, that decision cannot be reversed.

The proposal ties into broader concerns within the crypto world about the rise of quantum computers, which are theoretically capable of cracking current encryption methods. Earlier, a vulnerability in Ledger’s Ethereum app was also resolved. Whether and when this EIP proposal will actually be included in a network upgrade is not yet known.