Ethereum developers have proposed rebuilding the validator deposit contract to support new cryptographic signature schemes, aiming to protect staked ether from potential quantum attacks. The current contract accepts only BLS signatures, which rely on elliptic curve mathematics that a quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm could break, allowing forgery of validator signatures. Approximately 42.4 million ether, valued at about $104 billion, is currently staked and secured by those signatures. The draft proposal would enable multiple signature types by adding tags to each deposit, allowing new quantum‑resistant schemes to be registered while keeping existing BLS deposits operational initially. It also retires the legacy deposit‑processing system introduced with staking in 2022 and moves deposits onto the framework already used for withdrawals and validator changes. If adopted, the change would require validators to verify new signatures in a separate upgrade. The proposal is an early work‑in‑progress, filed under a placeholder identifier, and may be assigned the number EIP‑8394. The Ethereum Foundation targets completion of core quantum‑resistant protocol upgrades around 2029. The urgency is linked to research published in March that identified five quantum attack pathways potentially endangering more than $100 billion of assets across wallets, staking, smart contracts and layer‑2 systems.