Ethereum post-quantum transition: Justin Drake targets December 2028

Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake wants the Ethereum post-quantum transition finished by December 2028, a year before the foundation’s own deadline. “Our hope is that by December 2028 we’ll be able to wrap up the full post-quantum and post-AI transition,” he said at Devcon 8 in Mumbai on 3 November, Cointelegraph reported.

Drake said developers have 24 months to ship three more network upgrades. His target does not replace the official roadmap, and Cointelegraph’s report does not say what he means by a post-AI transition.

What the foundation's plan says

The foundation’s protocol team published its protocol priorities on 7 September. The document sets December 2029 as the date Ethereum must be quantum-resistant across all three layers: execution, consensus and data. It plans for Q-day, when a quantum computer can break today’s signatures, as early as 2030, and calls that assumption “deliberately aggressive”.

The roadmap spreads the work over the forks after Glamsterdam, which it targets for December 2026:

• Hegotá, headlined by FOCIL and frame transactions, which let accounts change signature schemes without a separate hard fork for each;
• I*, with a registry of post-quantum public keys;
• J*, a minimum viable post-quantum milestone with post-quantum transactions and leanDA data sampling;
• L*, full post-quantum readiness, including post-quantum attestations from validators.

The foundation treats the 2029 date as fixed at least until January 2027, when it will reassess quantum progress with outside experts. Google, Cloudflare and Microsoft set similar migration targets on their own.

Five forks of work in three

The roadmap says that reaching L* by December 2029 requires a fork every 7.2 months on average. Drake’s three upgrades in 24 months come to one every eight months, so his plan needs fewer forks, with the work of five packed into three. Cointelegraph’s report does not say which items he would merge.

Ethereum has missed fork dates this year. Developers pushed Glamsterdam back in July, and in October they delayed its testnet fork over a gas flaw. StarkWare chief executive Eli Ben-Sasson told Cointelegraph the 2029 target was “too late” and warned that deadlines could slip.

What it means for you

Your ETH balance does not change. The plan replaces the signatures that protect accounts and validators. Once post-quantum transactions go live, your wallet will need to support the new scheme before you can use it.

Stakers get the earliest step: the roadmap starts retiring BLS withdrawal credentials (EIP-8365) without waiting for the full design. We covered the first proposal for quantum-safe staking in August, and Buterin’s July Strawmap set the same order of priorities. Watch January 2027, when the foundation reviews its deadline.

The December 2028 date is Drake’s own target, not a foundation decision. The per-fork intervals for Drake’s plan are our calculation.