Ethereum Abandons Poseidon Hash Function in Post-Quantum Plan
The Ethereum Foundation has shifted its focus away from the Poseidon hash function in its post-quantum architecture plan. According to researcher Justin Drake, this decision is due to advances in SNARKs (compact proofs used to confirm computations without repeating underlying work), which now allow conventional hashes to perform efficiently enough to replace Poseidon.
Poseidon was considered for future post-quantum systems such as leanVM, which would help Ethereum verify large volumes of blockchain activity. However, established hash-based systems like SHA or BLAKE have fewer known avenues of attack and can be deployed faster because they have already undergone years of scrutiny.
Eigen Labs founder Sreeram Kannan agrees that joint work with the foundation and zero-knowledge proof company Succinct has increased proving speeds by 2.5 times.