News linked to both this project and an event.
A cryptography expert advisory committee led by Coinbase released a report stating that Bitcoin should immediately begin preparing for potential quantum computing attacks. However, the committee did not take a clear stance on whether to freeze the millions of bitcoins potentially vulnerable to quantum-computing theft in the future. The committee includes several leading experts, such as Justin Drake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation. They argue that the current debate is not about *how* to introduce quantum-resistant signature schemes, but rather *how to handle* bitcoins held in long-dormant addresses that fail to migrate. One camp advocates setting a final deadline after which Bitcoin’s existing ECDSA and Schnorr signature schemes would no longer be supported, and unmigrated funds would be frozen—thereby preventing future quantum attackers from seizing large amounts of BTC and destabilizing markets. The other camp contends that freezing funds would effectively amount to asset confiscation, violating Bitcoin’s core principles of immutability and full user control over assets—and could set a precedent for future regulatory-driven freezes. The Coinbase advisory committee notes that these approaches are not mutually exclusive and could be combined. Yet it declines to state a position on whether “legacy BTC” should be frozen, asserting that the ultimate decision rests with Bitcoin’s community governance. It emphasizes two key points: first, technical development of quantum-resistant signature migration must begin immediately—not wait for governance debates to conclude; second, users must receive clear, timely risk communication to prevent prolonged uncertainty from harming the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Michael Egorov (@newmichwill), founder of Curve Finance, posted that recent security incidents in the DeFi space—triggered by centralized failure points—have occurred frequently and severely damaged the industry’s reputation. Citing examples such as Aave users being unable to withdraw funds following the rsETH exploit and the LayerZero cross-chain bridge hack, he emphasized that problems must be prevented *before* they occur—not addressed only after damage is done. He called on the industry to jointly establish DeFi security standards, proposing that the Ethereum Foundation and Solana Foundation take the lead in collaborating with projects across ecosystems, auditing firms, and risk-assessment teams to develop principles and specifications for secure system design—and suggesting that lessons could be drawn from traditional finance’s approaches to safeguarding centralized nodes.
The Ethereum Foundation announced that its jointly launched ETH Rangers program has completed its six-month run. The program aims to fund independent researchers who make public security contributions to the Ethereum ecosystem. Seventeen grantees achieved multiple accomplishments in areas including vulnerability research, security tool development, threat intelligence, and incident response—such as recovering or freezing over $5.8 million in funds, reporting or documenting 785+ vulnerabilities and client issues, identifying approximately 100 attackers, delivering security education content reaching over 209,000 users, and handling 36+ security incidents. Additionally, the program engaged over 800 teams in security challenges, produced over 80 technical talks and training sessions, and developed or improved seven or more open-source security tools. The Ethereum Foundation stated that these outcomes demonstrate that decentralized networks require “decentralized defense” to effectively enhance the overall security and resilience of the Ethereum ecosystem.