Ethereum Foundation Drops Poseidon Hash Function From Quantum-Resistant Plan

The Ethereum Foundation has removed the Poseidon hash function from its quantum-resistant architecture plan and shifted to established alternatives.

Cointelegraph reported on August 13 that Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake said the organization will adopt existing hash functions such as SHA or BLAKE instead of Poseidon. Hash functions are cryptographic tools that convert data into fixed-length digital fingerprints to verify whether information has been altered.

Poseidon had been considered for quantum-resistant systems including leanVM, which Ethereum is developing to efficiently verify large-scale blockchain activity. Drake said advances in SNARKs, a zero-knowledge proof technology, mean existing hash functions can now deliver sufficient processing efficiency. SNARKs allow users to prove a computation was performed correctly without repeating the full process.

Drake also outlined a timeline for the quantum-resistant transition. A production-ready leanVM is targeted for completion by 2027, followed by phased deployment across Ethereum's consensus, data and execution layers in 2028. He added that the schedule is a provisional goal and has not been finalized.

Sreeram Kannan, founder and chief executive officer of EigenLayer, said hash-based systems have fewer known attack paths than other quantum-resistant approaches and can be deployed faster because they have already been tested for years. He also said joint research with the Ethereum Foundation and zero-knowledge proof company Succinct had increased proof speeds by 2.5 times.