Researchers at AmericanFortress have introduced a patent-pending post-quantum signature scheme designed to secure the global crypto ecosystem against future quantum attacks without requiring mass fund migrations.
The breakthrough means even Satoshi Nakamoto’s 1.1 million bitcoin stash, alongside nearly 5 million BTC in dormant accounts-worth a combined $400 billion-can be protected.
CEO Michal Pospieszalski told CoinDesk that inactive wallets are vulnerable to hackers who could sweep up the loot and dump it on the market. Because Satoshi-era wallets are “Pre-BIP32” addresses with no seed phrase derivation, they cannot be upgraded automatically. Instead, the protocol would execute a defensive freeze via a backward-compatible soft fork.
“Our quantum-resistant protocol would automatically freeze and protect those funds until governance decides what to do with them after Q-day,” Pospieszalski said. The community would eventually vote to move, burn, or redistribute frozen assets.
The announcement follows an $8 million seed funding round co-led by SAVA Digital Asset Fund, Moon Pursuit Capital and 0G Labs. The firm also released a cryptographic paper identifying network performance bottlenecks that have plagued other post-quantum trials.
Unlike traditional approaches requiring entirely new blockchains or exhaustive address rotations, AmericanFortress uses zero-knowledge proofs to prove master seed ownership at the point of spend. The strategy deploys three solutions: Pre-BIP32 raw key protection, standard BIP32 quantum protection, and a high-speed “QBIP32” derivation scheme. It integrates natively with existing curves, causing no performance degradation.
Pospieszalski noted that over $600 billion in crypto assets are in a vulnerable state, including 100% of Solana addresses. For active users, migrating to a quantum-proof level takes 50 milliseconds via a simple wallet prompt.
The cryptographic methods for bitcoin are expected to be ready for discussion within weeks, ahead of an official presentation on June 2 in Paris.