El Salvador splits national bitcoin reserve across multiple wallets, citing quantum risk
El Salvador will spread its sovereign bitcoin holdings across multiple wallet addresses in a move officials say will strengthen custody against future quantum computing threats. The country adopted bitcoin as legal tender in 2021 and holds an estimated half a billion pounds worth of the cryptocurrency. The government’s Bitcoin Office described the change as a strategic step to enhance long term security.
The plan is rooted in a well known concern about public private key cryptography. In theory, sufficiently powerful quantum computers running Shor’s algorithm could derive private keys from exposed public keys. When a bitcoin transaction is signed and broadcast, the public key becomes visible on chain, which could create a window for theft in a future post quantum scenario. By splitting reserves into multiple wallets and limiting balances per address, officials aim to reduce the potential blast radius if any single address were ever compromised.
Researchers have warned that millions of coins held in legacy or reused setups could be more exposed over the long term because their public keys are already visible. Investment firms have also flagged quantum risk in recent disclosures, saying that advances could undermine some cryptographic assumptions used by digital assets.
Voices within the crypto industry counter that the threat is manageable. They argue that the network and its wallets could be upgraded if real world quantum capabilities begin to close in, with hardware and software changes rolled out much like other large scale tech migrations.
There is no immediate danger today, since current quantum machines are far from breaking modern elliptic curve signatures at scale. El Salvador’s move positions the country as an early adopter of practical precautions. Its impact will depend on continued operational discipline, clear public accounting, and the broader ecosystem’s progress toward post quantum secure standards.
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