PQ-Vault designs quantum-safe custody for unmodified Ethereum
Original title: PQ-Vault: Provably Quantum-Safe Asset Custody for Unmodified Ethereum
For 65,536 validators, a certificate is 0.8 MB and verifies in about 20 ms.
The paper argues that Ethereum accounts whose public keys appear on chain can have keys recovered by a quantum computer, and that no unchanged-rules sidechain or bridge can protect those funds. PQ-Vault combines a vault contract, a quantum-safe proof-of-stake sidechain with compact checkpoint certificates, and an optimistic dispute protocol. The authors say classically chosen parameters drop a security guarantee from 128 to about 60 bits, and a simple rule restores it. Pairing-based SNARK compression is rejected because it breaks quantum security.
- A certificate for 65,536 validators is 260 times smaller than all signatures.
- The vault accepts a checkpoint for about 420,000 gas.
- Fraud proofs require a single signature check.
- The authors also bound steering gain and inclusion delay for a new election.
From the original article
1 min read at arxiv.orgA quantum computer could recover the key of any Ethereum account whose public key appears on chain. We prove that no sidechain or bridge that leaves Ethereum's rules unchanged can protect such accounts: their funds must move into a contract whose release condition relies only on quantum-safe primitives.
By Hassan Khodaiemehr · arxiv.org
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