Crypto Firms Race to Quantum-Proof Wallets Before Bitcoin, Ethereum Networks Catch Up
In briefFirms are building quantum-resistant wallets ahead of blockchain upgrades.Approaches range from MPC upgrades to layer-2 overlays.Experts say user behavior and coordination remain weak points in quantum upgrade rollouts. Crypto companies are moving to secure their wallet and custody offerings against a future quantum computing threat, aiming to upgrade user-facing infrastructure faster than blockchains can change their core protocols. The shift reflects a growing view that network-level upgrades to blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum could take years, leaving wallets exposed in the meantime. And the timeline for the purported “Q-Day” threat to crypto could be coming faster than expected, with one recent estimate putting it as soon as 2030. One company working to bring post-quantum security to crypto wallets is Silence Laboratories, which said it has added support for distributed—or multi-party computation (MPC)—signatures using ML-DSA, a cryptographic algorithm selected by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Jay Prakash, CEO and co-founder of Silence Laboratories, said the company‘s work follows recent developments in post-quantum cryptography, including NIST’s approval of three algorithms: SPHINCS+, Falcon, and CRYSTALS-Dilithium. Prakash said the company spent the past six months evaluating those algorithms for distributed signing systems used by custodians and institutional wallets. “Not all of SPHINCS+, Falcon, and CRYSTALS-Dilithium will