Ethereum Foundation Abandons Poseidon Hash Algorithm, Shifts to SHA-2 or BLAKE2 for Post-Quantum Cryptography

ME News reports that on August 13 (UTC+8), Ethereum researcher Justin Drake announced that, after eight years and tens of millions of dollars invested in post-quantum cryptography research, the Ethereum Foundation has decided to abandon the SNARK-friendly hash function Poseidon at the L1 layer in favor of traditional hash functions such as SHA-2 or BLAKE2. Justin Drake noted that this shift is made possible by breakthrough advancements in SNARK design—specifically, the use of "binary field" operations, which enable traditional hash functions to achieve performance comparable to Poseidon within SNARK circuits, allowing approximately one million traditional hash verifications per second on a single laptop. The article explains that since its introduction in 2019, Poseidon has been the leading SNARK-friendly hash scheme, providing security for applications such as zkRollups and zkVMs. Justin Drake stated that projections indicate a production-ready leanVM is expected to launch in 2027, with corresponding deployments on the consensus, data, and execution layers anticipated to be completed by 2028. The Ethereum Foundation’s post-quantum team is also accelerating research related to binary fields. (Source: Foresight News)