Vitalik Buterin proposes a hard fork to counter a possible quantum attack on Ethereum

Vitalik Buterin, one of the founders of Ethereum, proposed a solution for a possible attack with quantum computers. Buterin stated that quantum attacks can be prevented by introducing account abstraction through a hard fork.

Vitalik Buterin proposes a hard fork to counter a possible quantum attack on Ethereum

While it has been a subject of discussions for years whether cryptocurrency and blockchain technology can be hacked with the development of quantum computers, Vitalik Buterin offered a solution for the Ethereum blockchain.

“Suppose that bad actors have access to quantum computers…”

In his blog post, Buterin, who stated that a quantum resistant cryptography is the goal to be achieved, used the following statements:

“Suppose that it is announced tomorrow that quantum computers are available, and bad actors already have access to them and are able to use them to steal users’ funds. Preventing such a scenario is the goal of quantum-resistant cryptography (eg. Winternitz signatures, STARKs), and once account abstraction is in place, any user can switch to using a quantum-resistant signature scheme on their own schedule. But what if we don’t have that much time, and a sudden quantum transition happens long before that?”

“EIP to hard-fork the chain to recover…”

Suggesting a fork to overcome the quantum computer danger and stating that this fork should be supported by an Ethereum Development Proposal (EIP), Buterin stated that security will be provided much more easily:

“We are already well-positioned to make a pretty simple recovery fork to deal with such a situation. With quantum computers, elliptic curve multiplications become invertible (because it’s a discrete-log problem), but hashes are still safe. If a user has not made any transactions with their account, then only the address is publicly visible and they are already safe. But if a user has made even one transaction, then the signature of that transaction reveals the public key, which in a post-quantum world allows revealing the private key. And so most users would be vulnerable.” he said. “This implies the natural structure of an EIP to hard-fork the chain to recover from a quantum emergency”

Is there a quantum threat now?

As it is known, quantum computers have been on the main issue in the crypto industry for a long time. Breaking the blockchain encryption means that people’s cryptocurrencies can be stolen quickly. However, engineers, especially at Google and IBM, argue that quantum computers can reach a certain power in 2029 at the earliest.

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