AmericanFortress proposes quantum-safe crypto wallet protection without fund migration

Blockchain security company AmericanFortress has unveiled a cryptographic scheme that it says could protect existing cryptocurrency wallets from future quantum attacks without requiring users to move funds, rotate keys or change wallet addresses.Unlike most proposed post-quantum approaches, AmericanFortress said its scheme allows existing wallet addresses to remain unchanged while adding post-quantum protection.The company published the proposal in a technical paper on the Cryptography ePrint Archive, describing the scheme as compatible with seed-based hierarchical deterministic wallets used across Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL) and other blockchain networks that rely on elliptic curve cryptography. The paper has not yet been peer-reviewed.According to the paper, the scheme uses zero-knowledge proofs derived from a wallet’s original seed phrase instead of replacing the elliptic curve cryptography underlying existing wallets. AmericanFortress said participating nodes would verify those proofs while users continue signing transactions with their existing keys.AmericanFortress also cited a recent Bloomberg analysis estimating that up to $470 billion in Bitcoin could be vu...