Insider Brief
- StarkWare has published a roadmap outlining how Starknet plans to transition to post-quantum security by replacing remaining elliptic-curve cryptography with quantum-resistant alternatives.
- The roadmap proposes a three-phase migration covering new transactions, existing smart contracts, and external dependencies such as Ethereum bridge infrastructure.
- StarkWare argues that quantum-safe cryptographic tools are already available and that blockchain networks should begin migrating before quantum threats become urgent.
Press release – A new roadmap for quantum-safe blockchain has dropped, and authors say it illustrates that tools already exist to protect crypto from quantum threats and that keys will remain exposed only if the industry is “too stubborn or stupid” to act.
The roadmap focuses on Starknet, setting out how the network can make major strides toward post-quantum security within months. But its authors, who billed it the “strongest quantum crypto roadmap to date,” say the implications extend far beyond a single blockchain.
“The tried-and-tested cryptography exists to secure every crypto key in the world, if necessary changes are made, and the only reason anyone will remain vulnerable is if heads remain buried in the sand,” Eli Ben-Sasson said. He is CEO at StarkWare, where in a separate development earlier this year, Avihu Levy published a groundbreaking proposal for quantum-safe Bitcoin without a fork.
The new roadmap by StarkWare outlines how Starknet can become future-proof by seizing on its “architecture advantage” – the fact that its underlying cryptography, zero-knowledge STARK proofs, is inherently post-quantum safe.
It sets out a three-phase plan to replace Starknet’s remaining elliptic-curve dependencies – for example some signatures – with post-quantum alternatives. It then extends those protections to existing contracts through new migration tooling, before resolving the final external dependencies tied to Ethereum’s bridge and data-availability infrastructure.
“This document says: here is how we’ll do it for Starknet. It’s our path to making Starknet a safe haven for funds whatever quantum may bring. And the subtext is that if we can do it by seizing on this cryptography, then anyone else can do it by choosing the right cryptography,” said Ben-Sasson, co-inventor of STARKs (see screenshot below of early paper).
“We need to be nimble in blockchain and crypto. There’s an awful irony in the notion that a young industry born from rejecting the way things have always been done is stalling and procrastinating about making changes for quantum security.
“If your password leaks, you change your password. If someone invents a master key for the lock on your front door, you change to a different type of lock. The crypto industry shouldn’t need wake-up calls from the White House or anyone else. We should all be acting, and seizing on the best cryptography that exists.”
Ben-Sasson also used the phrase “the elliptical illusion” to describe the belief that blockchains built around elliptic-curve cryptography will be safe without making changes.
Elliptic-curve cryptography is the mathematical system used by most major blockchains and many scaling solutions to create digital signatures, verify ownership, and authorize transactions. It underpins Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and much of today’s wider digital-security infrastructure.
He said: “Crypto has an ‘elliptical illusion.’ Like an optical illusion, it distorts reality – only this one is built around elliptic-curve cryptography. It is the belief that blockchains using today’s standard cryptography will somehow be fine when quantum arrives. That false confidence is leaving the industry dangerously complacent.”
“What’s more, everyone in crypto should internalize that scale that cannot survive quantum isn’t real scale. It is a mirage.”
He added that STARKs start from a different foundation: they are hash-based, post-quantum secure by design, and built to compress large amounts of computation, allowing scale, quantum resilience, and privacy to reinforce one another rather than pull in opposite directions.
Ben-Sasson acknowledged: “Some migration problems are genuinely hard. They involve technical trade-offs, governance decisions, and dependencies that no single team controls. But difficulty is not an excuse for delay. What matters now is resolve, flexibility, and a willingness to change course before the risk becomes urgent.”
Five Key Points from the Roadmap
- Phase Three covers dependencies Starknet cannot resolve alone, including Ethereum bridge syscalls and blob data availability, both of which remain tied to Ethereum’s own post-quantum migration timetable.
- Starknet’s STARK-based proving layer is already post-quantum secure because it relies on collision-resistant hash functions rather than elliptic-curve cryptography, avoiding the deepest migration challenge facing many rival networks today.
- Phase One replaces Pedersen hashing with BLAKE2 across state commitments, contract addresses, and network configuration, protecting new contracts, transactions, and state updates without requiring action from users or developers.
- The roadmap also provides for post-quantum consensus signatures, using a scheme such as Falcon-512, ensuring Starknet can remain secure as it advances toward fully decentralized and trustless network operation.
- Phase Two focuses on existing contracts, with native tooling and a migration toolkit intended to bring legacy deployments into post-quantum alignment without manual data migration or breaking existing interfaces.
For more details regarding the roadmap, visit the blog – https://starkware.co/blog/the-architecture-advantage-starknets-quantum-readiness-roadmap/
