Thomas Coratger is a French security and cryptography researcher at the Ethereum Foundation. His work focuses on applied mathematics, formal verification of protocols, and the development of advanced zero-knowledge proof systems. ^{[1] [2]}​

Education

Thomas Coratger completed a Science Baccalaureate in Mathematics at Lycée Bellevue (2011–2014), graduating with distinction. He then earned an Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering and Numerical Simulation from INSA Toulouse – Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Toulouse (2014–2019), with training spanning mechanical design, structural analysis, numerical simulation (applied mathematics, algorithms, and fluid mechanics), mechatronics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, microfluidics, and composite structures. During this period, he also studied at Glasgow Caledonian University (2016–2017) in Computer-Aided Mechanical Engineering, including an Erasmus semester from September 2016 to January 2017 focused on mathematics, materials and manufacturing, thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, and engineering design/analysis. In 2019, he completed entrepreneurship training at CFA Midisup. He later earned a PhD in Applied Mathematics at Aix-Marseille University (2019–2022), where his research centered on Lattice Boltzmann numerical simulation for compressible flows. ^[5]

Career

Early Engineering

Thomas Coratger began his professional career as an Apprentice Engineer at Expleo Group in Toulouse (Sep 2017–Sep 2019), where he built Excel/VBA tools for continuous improvement and carried out structural calculations on engine pylons, including FEM-based analysis work. ^[5]

Blockchain Engineering and Teaching

After his PhD, Coratger moved into blockchain R&D. He joined Grindery.io as a Blockchain Developer & Researcher (Aug 2022–Jan 2023) working on a Web2/Web3 automation system, then became Blockchain Lead Developer & Researcher (Jan 2023–Mar 2024), contributing to oracle and cross-chain communication systems and cross-chain DeFi. In parallel, he taught as a Blockchain Teacher at CFA Sup de Vinci in Paris (Dec 2022–Jan 2024), covering the theoretical foundations and applications of blockchain technology. ^[5]

ZK and Ethereum

In Apr 2024, Coratger joined Kakarot zkEVM as a Core Developer (Apr 2024–Jan 2025), helping build an EVM-compatible ZK-rollup leveraging Cairo aimed at accelerating ZK innovation on Ethereum. He then moved to the Ethereum Foundation as a Cryptographic Engineer (Dec 2024–Jan 2026) within the Applied Research Group (ARG). In Jan 2026, he became Post-Quantum Ethereum Team Leader (Jan 2026–present), leading research and engineering of post-quantum cryptography for Ethereum. ^[5]

Research and Contributions to Ethereum

Coratger's work spans several critical areas of blockchain security and scalability, including post-quantum cryptography, formal verification, and zero-knowledge proofs.

Formal Verification and the leanEthereum Project

Coratger is a significant contributor to the leanEthereum project, an initiative dedicated to creating a formal, machine-verifiable specification of the Ethereum consensus protocol using the Lean proof assistant. The goal of formal verification is to mathematically prove the correctness of the protocol's logic, thereby increasing security assurances and eliminating potential bugs before implementation. ^[7]​

His work is concentrated in the leanSpec repository, where he has implemented and tested core components of the consensus mechanism. This includes logic for attestations, block building, state transitions, and the justification and finalization of blocks. He has also contributed to integrating cryptographic primitives, such as the Poseidon2 hash function, and ensuring compatibility with other Ethereum clients. ^[7]​

WHIR Protocol

On August 18, 2025, Coratger and co-author Giacomo Fenzi published a research post titled "WHIR for Ethereum." The paper introduced WHIR, a novel hash-based protocol for proximity testing, a component used in modern zk-SNARKs. WHIR is designed to be faster, produce smaller proofs, and be post-quantum secure, aligning with his broader security work. ^[3]​

STARK-based Proving Systems

Coratger is also a contributor to the development of STARK-based proving systems. He has made contributions to Plonky3, an open-source, STARK-based proving system, where he has submitted optimizations for matrix operations. His personal GitHub repositories also contain explorations in Rust related to polynomial interactive oracle proofs (PIOPs) and other cryptographic components of proving systems. ^[7]​

Publications and Technical Writings

Coratger actively publishes technical research and educational material. He is a co-author of EIP-7562, an Ethereum Improvement Proposal for adding precompiles for the BLS12-381 elliptic curve to the EVM, which would support more efficient cryptographic operations on-chain. ^[5]​

He is also a contributor to the "zkEVM book," a work-in-progress publication from the Ethereum Foundation's zkEVM team aimed at educating engineers and researchers. ^[3]​

His public research notes on HackMD cover a wide range of topics, including:

• Lean Consensus: 2026 Plan (November 2025)
• Understanding Ligerito: A Fast, Recursive Polynomial Commitment Scheme (December 2025)
• Optimizing the Sum-Check Prover (October 2025)
• Memory Models & Lookup Arguments in leanVM (September 2025)

These writings, along with his open-source repositories like lea-n, univ-sumcheck-rs, and bls12-377-ark, document his deep engagement with applied cryptography. ^[4]​