Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is championing EIP-8288, a proposal designed to make post-quantum cryptography affordable on-chain by using recursive STARK aggregation to slash gas costs for quantum-safe private transactions.
Buterin said quantum-safe private transactions, which currently require approximately 10 million gas, could drop to tens of thousands under EIP-8288—a reduction of more than 99 percent.
The mechanism works by aggregating cryptographic signatures and proofs into a single recursive STARK proof at the mempool level rather than verifying each object individually on-chain. Mempool nodes would collect transaction dependencies and generate recursive STARK proofs; block builders would then assemble a single proof covering all transaction dependencies within a block. This eliminates the need to store or verify individual user signatures and proofs directly on-chain.
EIP-8288 specifies dependency data as 96-byte statements with a recursive STARK at the block level for efficiency. The approach allows support for new cryptographic signature and proof schemes without requiring separate EVM upgrades for each scheme.
Buterin said he hopes EIP-8288 will be included in I-star, the fork after Hegota, which follows the Frames update.
The push aligns with the Ethereum Foundation's December 2029 target to achieve quantum resistance across Ethereum's execution, consensus, and data layers—a deadline the Foundation described as "non-negotiable" at least through January 2027. EIP-8288 remains in draft stage and has not yet been integrated into Ethereum's live protocol.
