Ethereum’s top 1,000 wallets could lose 20.5M ETH in 9 days without a quantum-resistant upgrade

The top 1,000 wealthiest wallets on the Ethereum ($ETH) network could be systematically drained in 9 days by an attacker equipped with a sufficiently powerful quantum computer, according to new research.

The research published on March 31 by the Google Quantum AI team found that the majority of Ethereum accounts have already initiated at least one transaction, thereby making their public keys visible and their funds quantum-vulnerable. Together, the top vulnerable Ethereum accounts hold approximately 20.5 million $ETH, which is valued at about $4.27 billion at press time.

​The Ethereum accounts that have never sent a transaction remain safe for now, since their public keys are still masked behind their wallet address.

Is there a solution to quantum attacks on Ethereum?

The research highlighted Account Abstraction (AA) as Ethereum’s most cited quantum defense through the 2023 ERC-4337 upgrade. The upgrade improves flexibility and reduces reliance on static keys, but it cannot hide a public key that is already on-chain.

​As such, the paper concluded that AA only treats the symptoms rather than the root cause. Last month, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the Ethereum network, proposed a roadmap to strengthen the network’s quantum resistance.

​Buterin’s proposal aims to address four vulnerabilities: consensus signatures, data availability, wallet signatures, and application-layer zero-knowledge proofs. However, the public keys of the top wealthiest accounts that have already transacted are exposed to quantum attacks and are not covered by these proposals.

​Meanwhile, the Ethereum community has been relying on a post-quantum team, led by Thomas Coratger, to ensure a smooth transition without any loss of funds. With the Ethereum network boasting the largest smart contract ecosystem, a secure post-quantum security roadmap is key to maintaining user trust before the end of this decade.