Ethereum Eyes Post-Quantum Validator Deposits as Developers Plan BLS Phaseout

Ethereum developers have proposed a post-quantum-ready deposit contract that would support different cryptographic signature schemes while enabling a future phase-out of new BLS-based validator deposits.

The proposed contract would accept variable-length public keys and credential metadata, with scheme identifiers specifying the cryptographic system used for each deposit. Scheme 0 would be reserved for Ethereum’s existing BLS deposits.

Under the design, execution-layer requests would replace the legacy deposit contract’s Merkle-tree mechanism. The requests would use the framework established by EIP-7685, which provides a general-purpose channel for execution-layer-triggered requests to the consensus layer. 

The proposal also includes an irreversible migration mechanism for BLS deposits. The switch could initially allow new BLS deposits, then permanently block additional deposits under the scheme once enabled, allowing Ethereum to transition toward post-quantum signature systems.

Developer Kevaundray Wedderburn submitted the proposal through a pull request to Ethereum’s EIPs repository. Proposals submitted to the repository remain working papers until they enter the formally tracked EIP process, and draft specifications can still change.

Source: GitHub