Quantum Wallets Drop: AmericanFortress Says Keep Your Address, Skip the Panic

Blockchain security firm AmericanFortress has published a cryptographic scheme designed to shield existing cryptocurrency wallets from future quantum attacks without requiring users to relocate funds, rotate keys or change addresses. The proposal appears in a technical paper on the Cryptography ePrint Archive and has not yet been peer-reviewed. It is described as compatible with seed-based hierarchical deterministic wallets used across Bitcoin ($BTC), Ethereum ($ETH), Solana ($SOL) and other networks that rely on elliptic curve cryptography.

The paper outlines a system that uses zero-knowledge proofs derived from a wallet's original seed phrase rather than replacing the elliptic curve cryptography underlying existing wallets. According to AmericanFortress, participating nodes would verify those proofs while users continue signing transactions with their existing keys. The company cited a recent Bloomberg analysis estimating that up to $470 billion in Bitcoin could be vulnerable to quantum attacks if sufficiently powerful quantum computers become available.

AmericanFortress is not alone in developing post-quantum protections. On Tuesday, Freedom Factory introduced PQ1, a post-quantum hardware wallet built for Ethereum and other Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible networks. Freedom Factory said the device generates post-quantum signatures on dedicated hardware using SPHINCS+C10 signatures and ERC-4337 smart accounts to secure transactions against future quantum threats.

Developers have accelerated post-quantum research as concerns grow that sufficiently powerful quantum computers could eventually break the elliptic-curve cryptography securing Bitcoin, Ethereum and many other blockchain networks. In recent months, a Strategy-led consortium pledged $15 million to fund Bitcoin quantum security research, the Ethereum Foundation published a proposal for migrating accounts to quantum-resistant cryptography, and Algorand outlined plans to introduce quantum-resistant accounts by 2027. Related efforts have also emerged in Hong Kong, where authorities have prepared banks for quantum threats amid a tokenization push.