Ethereum Foundation sets strict 128-bit encryption rules for 2026

Jinse Finance reported that the Ethereum Foundation stated that the only acceptable ultimate goal for L1 is "provable security," rather than "security assuming conjecture X holds." They have set 128-bit security as the target, aligning with mainstream cryptographic standards organizations and academic literature on long-term systems, as well as real-world recorded computational results, which indicate that 128-bit is practically out of reach for attackers. The EF pointed out some specific tools aimed at achieving the 128-bit, less than 300 KB target. They highlighted WHIR, a new Reed-Solomon proximity test, which is also a multilinear polynomial commitment scheme.