fara.eth

Ethproofs @ Ethereum Foundation | @eth_proofs. Previously @LeatherBTC, @HiroSystems, and @Hudl.

[fara.eth @fbwoolf]

The EF mandate reminds us that protocol design choices shape decentralization:

“If Ethereum supports only a narrow set of account types… those use cases that require smart accounts can only be served through intermediaries.”

Protocol limitations create centralization pressure.

Expanding native account capabilities (eg. EIP-8141) helps ensure advanced UX inherits Ethereum’s CROPS guarantees instead of relying on trusted middleware.

EIP-8141 (link below)👇

[Ethereum Foundation @ethereumfndn]

Today, the Foundation’s Board released the EF Mandate.

This document, which was first intended for EF members, reaffirms the promise of Ethereum, and the role of EF within this ecosystem.

[ladislaus.eth @ladislaus0x]

https://t.co/ZgrmK0xL9U

[Will Corcoran @corcoranwill]

There's a new chapter starting for the Protocol cluster. We're welcoming new leads and coordinators, and continuing our work toward Glamsterdam, Hegotà, and the Strawmap.

More in the blog below 👇

[Thomas Coratger @tcoratger]

What if the final form of software development for zkVMs bypasses Rust, C, and compilers entirely?

@pirapira from @zksecurityXYZ argues that combining raw RISC-V Assembly, Lean4, and AI agents is the ultimate path to bug-free zkVMs.

Bullish on this approach since Cannes. 🧵👇

[ethrex @ethrex_client]

We've integrated @zksync's Airbender as a new proving backend for @ethrex_client on @eth_proofs!

The average proving time is ~40s with a single GPU, achieving 14s in some blocks! These are our fastest zkVM proving times to date, and there's still much room for improvement.

Thanks to the @zksync team for the great work on Airbender.

[ladislaus.eth @ladislaus0x]

Why does L1-zkEVM need Block-in-Blobs (EIP-8142), even for optional proofs?

zkEVM unlocks significantly higher gas limits. But without BiB, validators must still download full payloads to confirm tx data was published, even though zkEVM proofs already guarantee execution correctness.

Today that's not a problem: data availability is implicit, because validators download & execute every tx anyway.

zkAttesters break this coupling, and without BiB there would be proof-verified execution but no DA guarantee; an incomplete migration that removes the re-execution burden but preserves the download burden, scaling linearly with the very gas limits zkEVM is supposed to unlock.

BiB closes the loop by encoding tx data into blobs that can be cryptographically verified without downloading them in full.
Initially, validators may still download all payload blobs, but the data is now in a format that enables DAS for payload data eventually.

That is when the gas limit can truly grow without proportionally growing every validator's bandwidth.

[Thomas Coratger @tcoratger]

Two landmark papers from @Google & @TeamOratomic just shattered our timelines for Q-day (when quantum computers break crypto).

Q-day might be closer than we think.

Here is a breakdown of @nic_carter's latest analysis. 🧵👇

[fara.eth @fbwoolf]

@chamath @mert @PaxMontanax https://t.co/SgsolxSG3P

[fara.eth @fbwoolf]

@leanEthereum is on this, don't worry.

[Justin Drake @drakefjustin]

Today is a monumentous day for quantum computing and cryptography. Two breakthrough papers just landed (links in next tweet). Both papers improve Shor's algorithm, infamous for cracking RSA and elliptic curve cryptography. The two results compound, optimising separate layers of the quantum stack. The results are shocking. I expect a narrative shift and a further R&D boost toward post-quantum cryptography.

The first paper is by Google Quantum AI. They tackle the (logical) Shor algorithm, tailoring it to crack Bitcoin and Ethereum signatures. The algorithm runs on ~1K logical qubits for the 256-bit elliptic curve secp256k1. Due to the low circuit depth, a fast superconducting computer would recover private keys in minutes. I'm grateful to have joined as a late paper co-author, in large part for the chance to interact with experts and the alpha gleaned from internal discussions.

The second paper is by a stealthy startup called Oratomic, with ex-Google and prominent Caltech faculty. Their starting point is Google's improvements to the logical quantum circuit. They then apply improvements at the physical layer, with tricks specific to neutral atom quantum computers. The result estimates that 26,000 atomic qubits are sufficient to break 256-bit elliptic curve signatures. This would be roughly a 40x improvement in physical qubit count over previous state-of-the-art. On the flip side, a single Shor run would take ~10 days due to the relatively slow speed of neutral atoms.

Below are my key takeaways. As a disclaimer, I am not a quantum expert. Time is needed for the results to be properly vetted. Based on my interactions with the team, I have faith the Google Quantum AI results are conservative. The Oratomic paper is much harder for me to assess, especially because of the use of more exotic qLDPC codes. I will take it with a grain of salt until the dust settles.

→ q-day: My confidence in q-day by 2032 has shot up significantly. IMO there's at least a 10% chance that by 2032 a quantum computer recovers a secp256k1 ECDSA private key from an exposed public key. While a cryptographically-relevant quantum computer (CRQC) before 2030 still feels unlikely, now is undoubtedly the time to start preparing.
→ censorship: The Google paper uses a zero-knowledge (ZK) proof to demonstrate the algorithm's existence without leaking actual optimisations. From now on, assume state-of-the-art algorithms will be censored. There may be self-censorship for moral or commercial reasons, or because of government pressure. A blackout in academic publications would be a tell-tale sign.
→ cracking time: A superconducting quantum computer, the type Google is building, could crack keys in minutes. This is because the optimised quantum circuit is just 100M Toffoli gates, which is surprisingly shallow. (Toffoli gates are hard because they require production of so-called "magic states".) Toffoli gates would consume ~10 microseconds on a superconducting platform, totalling ~1,000 sec of Shor runtime.
→ latency optimisations: Two latency optimisations bring key cracking time to single-digit minutes. The first parallelises computation across quantum devices. The second involves feeding the pubkey to the quantum computer mid-flight, after a generic setup phase.
→ fast- and slow-clock: At first approximation there are two families of quantum computers. The fast-clock flavour, which includes superconducting and photonic architectures, runs at roughly 100 kHz. The slow-clock flavour, which includes trapped ion and neutral atom architectures, runs roughly 1,000x slower (~100 Hz, or ~1 week to crack a single key).
→ qubit count: The size-optimised variant of the algorithm runs on 1,200 logical qubits. On a superconducting computer with surface code error correction that's roughly 500K physical qubits, a 400:1 physical-to-logical ratio. The surface code is conservative, assuming only four-way nearest-neighbour grid connectivity. It was demonstrated last year by Google on a real quantum computer.
→ future gains: Low-hanging fruit is still being picked, with at least one of the Google optimisations resulting from a surprisingly simple observation. Interestingly, AI was not (yet!) tasked to find optimisations. This was also the first time authors such as Craig Gidney attacked elliptic curves (as opposed to RSA). Shor logical qubit count could plausibly go under 1K soonish.
→ error correction: The physical-to-logical ratio for superconducting computers could go under 100:1. For superconducting computers that would be mean ~100K physical qubits for a CRQC, two orders of magnitude away from state of the art. Neutral atoms quantum computers are amenable to error correcting codes other than the surface code. While much slower to run, they can bring down the physical to logical qubit ratio closer to 10:1.
→ Bitcoin PoW: Commercially-viable Bitcoin PoW via Grover's algorithm is not happening any time soon. We're talking decades, possibly centuries away. This observation should help focus the discussion on ECDSA and Schnorr. (Side note: as unofficial Bitcoin security researcher, I still believe Bitcoin PoW is cooked due to the dwindling security budget.)
→ team quality: The folks at Google Quantum AI are the real deal. Craig Gidney (@CraigGidney) is arguably the world's top quantum circuit optimisooor. Just last year he squeezed 10x out of Shor for RSA, bringing the physical qubit count down from 10M to 1M. Special thanks to the Google team for patiently answering all my newb questions with detailed, fact-based answers. I was expecting some hype, but found none.

[fara.eth @fbwoolf]

https://t.co/SgsolxSG3P

[Ethereum Foundation @ethereumfndn]

Today, several teams at the EF are launching https://t.co/MtJ95Ah4z6, a dedicated resource for Ethereum's post-quantum security effort.

What started with early STARK-based signature aggregation research in 2018 has grown into a coordinated, multi-team effort, all open source.

The Post-Quantum team and Cryptography teams, with help from the Protocol Architecture and Protocol Coordination teams, have been working on this body of work for 8+ years.

At https://t.co/MtJ95Ah4z6 you'll find:
- How PQ impacts each protocol layer
- The full PQ roadmap (https://t.co/gPl9StdPSp)
- Open resources: repos, specs, papers, EIPs
- FAQ: 14 questions across 5 categories, written by the PQ team
- A 6-part lean Ethereum interview series (@zeroknowledgefm)
- Interest form for the 2nd Annual PQ Research Retreat (Cambridge, UK, Oct 2026)
- 10+ client teams are already building and shipping devnets weekly through PQ Interop.

All the work is public and all of it is open.
https://t.co/MtJ95Ah4z6

[fara.eth @fbwoolf]

12/ Full episode on @Bankless:

https://t.co/jqfabmZRKR

[fara.eth @fbwoolf]

1/ Quantum computing isn’t sci-fi anymore.

@drakefjustin lays out a credible timeline to “Q-Day” — the moment quantum machines can break today’s cryptography.

Estimate: ~2032.

That’s not far away. 🧵

[fara.eth @fbwoolf]

11/ If you care about crypto’s long-term survival (and evolution), check out Post-Quantum Ethereum:
https://t.co/VOcqDpUVp8