Introduction
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is calling for the blockchain to adopt quantum-resistant cryptography immediately, arguing that waiting until quantum computers become a practical threat would be a dangerous gamble. He emphasizes that Ethereum must pass the ‘walkaway test’—remaining secure and functional even if core development stops. Buterin’s push comes as the crypto industry grapples with long-term security challenges posed by advancing quantum technology.
Key Points
- Buterin argues Ethereum must adopt quantum-resistant cryptography preemptively, as waiting until quantum computers are a real threat could make blockchain security upgrades too late.
- He proposes the 'walkaway test'—Ethereum should remain secure and operational for decades even if core development halts, ensuring long-term trust without continuous upgrades.
- Technical priorities include scaling to thousands of transactions per second, durable state design, and proof-of-stake economics that resist centralization, with the goal to complete this work in the coming years.
The Quantum Threat and the 'Walkaway Test'
In a detailed post on X, Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin framed the network’s long-term viability around a core principle he calls the ‘walkaway test.’ This concept asserts that Ethereum’s value and security must not depend on continuous protocol upgrades or active stewardship from its core developers. ‘Ethereum the blockchain must have the traits that we strive for in Ethereum’s applications,’ Buterin wrote. ‘Hence, Ethereum itself must pass the walkaway test.’ The goal is a protocol so robust that it remains stable, secure, and trustworthy for decades, even if development were to slow or stop entirely.
Buterin directly ties this foundational stability to the looming, albeit not yet immediate, threat of quantum computing. He warns that blockchains like Ethereum and Bitcoin, which rely on elliptic-curve cryptography, face particular exposure. While secure against today’s classical computers, this encryption could be broken by sufficiently powerful quantum machines using Shor’s algorithm to derive private keys from public ones. Buterin’s position marks a shift from his 2019 stance, where he downplayed Google’s quantum advancements. He now argues that treating quantum resistance as a last-minute upgrade once the technology becomes a reality is a risk Ethereum ‘cannot afford to lose.’
‘We should resist the trap of saying, ‘Let’s delay quantum resistance until the last possible moment in the name of eking out more efficiencies for a while longer,’’ Buterin stated. He draws a critical distinction between individual users and the protocol itself, asserting that while users may choose to delay personal preparations, the foundational protocol does not have that luxury. ‘Being able to say ‘Ethereum’s protocol, as it stands today, is cryptographically safe for a hundred years’ is something we should strive to get to as soon as possible, and insist on as a point of pride,’ he concluded.
The Efficiency Trade-off and Industry Skepticism
Despite Buterin’s urgent call to action, significant technical and practical hurdles exist, prompting caution from other industry leaders. A primary concern is the current performance penalty associated with post-quantum cryptographic algorithms. Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano and an Ethereum co-founder, highlighted this trade-off in a recent interview. ‘Post-quantum crypto, oftentimes it’s about 10 times slower, 10 times larger proof sizes, and 10 times more inefficient,’ Hoskinson told Decrypt. ‘So if you adopt it, what you’re basically doing is taking the throughput of your blockchain and reducing it by cutting off a zero.’
This stark efficiency reduction presents a major dilemma for blockchain networks where scalability and transaction throughput are already critical challenges. Hoskinson’s warning underscores a broader debate within the crypto sector, represented by entities like ADA (Cardano) and ETH (Ethereum), on the timing of such a fundamental shift. The argument centers on whether to prioritize immediate, future-proof security at a significant cost to performance or to optimize for current efficiency while racing to implement quantum-resistant solutions later. Buterin’s stance is unequivocally for the former, prioritizing long-term cryptographic safety over short-term gains.
Buterin's Blueprint for a Durable Ethereum
Beyond quantum resistance, Buterin’s vision for a self-sustaining Ethereum encompasses a comprehensive technical roadmap. He outlined several priorities that the network must address to remain viable long-term. Central to this is achieving massive scale—an architecture capable of handling thousands of transactions per second through mechanisms like zero-knowledge EVM validation and data availability sampling, with future growth managed through simple parameter changes rather than complex upgrades.
Other critical components include a durable state design, a move beyond the current ‘enshrined’ Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) to a more general-purpose account model, and a gas schedule hardened against denial-of-service attacks. Buterin also emphasized the need for proof-of-stake economics that can remain decentralized into the future and block-building mechanisms designed to resist centralization and maintain censorship resistance.
Buterin set an ambitious timeline for this foundational work, stating the goal is to complete it over the next several years. ‘Every year, we should tick off at least one of these boxes, and ideally multiple,’ he wrote. His philosophy is to ‘do the right thing once, based on knowledge of what is truly the right thing,’ thereby maximizing ‘Ethereum’s technological and social robustness for the long term.’ This approach aims to minimize future disruptive protocol changes, relegating innovation largely to client optimization and limited parameter adjustments, ultimately striving to create a blockchain that truly passes the walkaway test.
📎 Related coverage from: decrypt.co
