Quantum-Safe Wallets Without Migration: AmericanFortress' New Proposal

Blockchain security company AmericanFortress has proposed a quantum-safe crypto wallet protection scheme without requiring users to move funds, rotate keys or change wallet addresses.

The scheme uses zero-knowledge proofs derived from a wallet's original seed phrase instead of replacing the elliptic curve cryptography underlying existing wallets. This approach allows existing wallet addresses to remain unchanged while adding post-quantum protection.

AmericanFortress' proposal is published in a technical paper on the Cryptography ePrint Archive, which has not yet been peer-reviewed. The company claims that this scheme is compatible with seed-based hierarchical deterministic wallets used across Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL) and other blockchain networks.

A recent Bloomberg analysis estimated that up to $470 billion in Bitcoin could be vulnerable to quantum attacks if sufficiently powerful quantum computers become available. AmericanFortress notes that its scheme allows participating nodes to verify zero-knowledge proofs while users continue signing transactions with their existing keys.