Cryptographer Urges Hash-Based Post-Quantum Migration
Zcash co-founder Eli Ben-Sasson's recommendation is a call to action, not a shipped standard, with no migration plan yet published.
Updated on Nov. 7, 2026 in Quantum Computing
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Eli Ben-Sasson, co-founder of Zcash and CEO of StarkWare, called on November 5, 2026 for systems to migrate to hash-based cryptography, naming ZK-STARKs as the target. The call is a recommendation from one prominent figure; it is not an announced product, standard, or migration program.
Why it matters
The post points the post-quantum transition toward hash-based schemes rather than lattice-based ones, a direction that matters for anyone designing long-lived cryptographic infrastructure. Ben-Sasson also warned that AI could help attackers target cryptography before quantum computers arrive, widening the timeline debate.
The evidence is a single November 5, 2026 post rather than a measured result, so no benchmark or performance comparator is available. The only quantified anchor is NIST's completion of three post-quantum standards in 2024, which provide the reference set the recommendation builds on.
The players
Eli Ben-Sasson
Co-founder of Zcash and CEO of StarkWare, whose work centers on zero-knowledge proofs and STARK provers.
StarkWare
Company that develops STARK provers, the proof systems built on hash-based, transparent zero-knowledge cryptography.
NIST
The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, which completed the 2024 post-quantum cryptography standards FIPS 203, 204, and 205.
The details
ZK-STARKs are transparent zero-knowledge proof systems, meaning they prove a statement is true without revealing the underlying data and without a trusted setup ceremony. Their security rests on collision-resistant hash functions, mathematical functions that make it infeasible to find two inputs producing the same output. That assumption is the reason Ben-Sasson argues hash-based designs are a sturdier target than schemes built on other hard problems. Wallet keys and custody arrangements, however, require separate migration work beyond the proof system itself.
Timeline
NIST completed its three post-quantum cryptography standards in 2024.
Ben-Sasson posted his call for hash-based cryptography migration on November 5, 2026.
The Tech Race
NIST's 2024 standards set the reference set against which migration choices are now being judged. Ben-Sasson's post pushes the field toward hash-based designs, a position that competes with lattice-based approaches the standards also cover.
This is a recommendation, not a shipped change, so no product or wallet is affected yet. Developers of wallets and custody systems would need separate migration work before any hash-based scheme reaches users.
The takeaway
Watch whether NIST or a major wallet provider formally adopts the hash-based direction in FIPS 205 as its migration target. Any published migration plan from a named vendor would be the first concrete test of Ben-Sasson's recommendation.
Further reading
For background on the shifting security assumptions behind this push, see Quantum Computing.
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