This might be the biggest opportunity blockchains have ever had. Technology has mostly been built around durable yet centralized trust systems. But the factors acting against these systems are getting more powerful as we near Super Intelligence™️. Obviously code can break due to the sheer mathematical progress AI is bringing, but less obviously, humans can be broken too. Impersonation, blackmail, and other forms of social engineering attacks are only going to get more advanced. As such, just fixing holes in code made to secure our lives is not enough, to build truly trustworthy systems of value, you will have to decentralize them and add immutability such that no single actor can, in most clear words, “not fuck it up.” This is exactly what Ethereum was built for. “Alright man, so what is Ethereum doing to survive this age? Are we cooked?” Quite the contrary, the frontier is moving fast, but Ethereum is moving faster. Some quick points: 1. The Hegotá upgrade will set the tone. This upgrade will make Ethereum cryptographically agile. EIP-8141, lovingly known as “Frames,” changes Ethereum accounts at the root level so that transaction validations can be programmable instead of tied to the ECSDA key (the thing Justin is warning people about in his post). Essentially accounts can choose how to authenticate instead of being tied to the current status quo. There are a few quantum proof signatures out there like ML-DSA and SPHINCS, with frames you can choose whatever and also be open to even more gigabrain ones to come. When you are faced with a threat, agility is key, and Hegotá sets the tone for that agility. 2. The J* upgrade will produce a MVP quantum proof L1. Okay, I know what you’re thinking, “why would you ever name such a consequential thing ‘I*’???What is wrong with you??” Trust me I thought this too, but I was promptly educated that names are not finalized until we get closer, in fact, the names even get a fun emoji next to them (e.g The Hegotá upgrade emoji is a goat 🐐 IFYKYK :P) ANYWAYS Think of J* as answering “what are the minimal changes Ethereum needs to make if quantum computers exist tomorrow?” The goal here is to have enough to survive Q-day. Today, this maps to achieving a PQ heartbeat on consenus layers, leanDA PQ sampling, and leanSPHINCS transactions on execution. TLDR: the aim is to ship this and then play Alright by Kendrick shortly after: “we gon’ be alright!” 4. The boxes are moving in real time If you’ve ever seen the strawmap (a proposed roadmap for Ethereum), you’ll know it has a lot of boxes. In particular, there is a quantum box. Also fun fact: it’s literally called a strawmap because it moves as research moves, and man is it moving! > On August 12, leanVM was moved forward from J* to I* > A week later, the roadmap added the minimal viable post-quantum L1 milestone to J* If you’re ever wondering whether Ethereum is taking this seriously, just watch the boxes and see how they dance. 5. AI is actually HELPING AI makes cryptographic research faster, and AI assisted formal verification means you don’t have to trust AI’s answer. Check out some of @fradamt’s posts for more. 6. Quantum is just one threat in a much bigger battle You can quantum proof a bank’s system but still be fallible to the humans that run it. Ethereum tackles this from both sides, it gardens the security while also distributing the authors of the network such that there is no single point of attack. Other blockchains, and any place that stores value TBH, will begin to claim they are quantum proof, but they fail to address the threat of being human proof too. 7. The grand prize is here, and Ethereum can grab it. A neutral and secure place for ALL value, that cannot be coerced by a government, a company, or Superintelligence. Your life, your story, your money, can be here, forever. And many generations from now, the kids will look up and think: thank god they tried. Godspeed. Ethereum.