Overview
- Kohaku researchers demonstrated on June 13–14 that an ERC-4337 smart account can be deployed on an Ethereum Layer 1 testnet for roughly $0.07 per account, giving a concrete, low-cost benchmark for opt-in quantum protection.
- The proposal centers on SPHINCS-, a family of hash-based, stateless post-quantum signatures optimized for the EVM; the C13 variant verifies at about 127,000 gas and uses a roughly 3,704-byte signature, which affects on-chain storage and transaction size.
- Kohaku has completed an initial security review with the firm Fable but says further audits, safer wallet integrations, and clearer operational limits are still required before broad user adoption.
- The Ethereum Foundation created a Post-Quantum Security team in January 2026 to coordinate this work, and the project frames account-level upgrades as a near-term hedge while protocol-level changes aim for fuller readiness around 2029.
- Beyond the immediate account path, researchers are pursuing smaller signatures and aggregation techniques such as leanSPHINCS to cut verification gas and speed hardware signing, which could change wallet UX and lower costs if adopted later.