On November 12, 2026, Ethlabs proposed pqai27, a goal for Ethereum to develop post-quantum and “post-AI” capabilities by 2027. The proposal, reported by BlockBeats, is a roadmap for developer discussion—not an agreed Ethereum upgrade schedule.
Ethlabs argues that advances in quantum computing and AI-assisted vulnerability discovery warrant earlier work on protocol security. It also points to a U.S. government quantum-risk target moved from 2035 to 2030 and a Google plan for post-quantum readiness before 2029. These are claims cited by Ethlabs as reasons for urgency; the proposal does not claim that AI has already broken Ethereum’s cryptographic primitives.
Readiness before full capacity
The roadmap distinguishes two goals. Under “pqai-ready,” Ethereum’s consensus layer would receive post-quantum upgrades, every user would have a path to a post-quantum account, and the network could continue operating at reduced throughput if existing cryptography failed early. “pqai-scaled” would support post-quantum transactions and data availability at full network capacity, with post-quantum transactions processed at the scale of ordinary transactions. Ethlabs identifies post-quantum signature aggregation and data-availability approaches as part of that later goal.
The upgrade decisions still open
Ethlabs proposes reassessing the scope of the subsequent Hegotá hard fork around pqai27’s critical path. It regards Frames and related post-quantum account proposals as important, while calling for another look at FOCIL’s effects on timing and post-quantum compatibility. Developers would also need to choose between adapting the existing Gasper consensus protocol and moving to decoupled consensus.
To focus resources, Ethlabs says it will withdraw its earlier push to include Quick Slots in Hegotá and seek to advance the feature in 2028 instead. It says Glamsterdam and its scaling plans should proceed as planned. Whether the proposed priorities and technical choices are adopted remains for Ethereum core developers to discuss and decide.
Source: theblockbeats.info (originally published 2026-11-12 11:03 UTC+8)
