Ethereum pivots to traditional hashes for post-quantum security

The decision to move away from Poseidon represents a fundamental change in how the network approaches zero-knowledge proof systems. While Poseidon was specifically designed to be "SNARK-friendly" by minimizing processing costs within zero-knowledge arguments, advances in binary-field SNARKs have rendered that advantage obsolete. According to Drake, modern systems can now process traditional, extensively audited hash functions with comparable efficiency, proving up to 1 million hash calls per second on standard hardware.

This shift prioritizes long-term security over specialized design. By adopting SHA and BLAKE, Ethereum leverages algorithms that have undergone decades of scrutiny, reducing the reliance on niche cryptographic primitives. This transition is tied to the broader "Strawmap" roadmap, which prepares the protocol for the eventual emergence of quantum computers capable of breaking current elliptic-curve cryptography. The foundation plans to integrate these changes through a specialized virtual machine, known as leanVM, with production-grade deployment targeted for 2027 and subsequent layer-by-layer integration in 2028.