Aug 25, 2026 · 1h 3m
Listen from 17:42
Listen at 17:42
Quantum threats force crypto to rethink its cryptographic foundations
One Type of Post-Quantum Cryptography Is Most Popular. Why Is Crypto Trying Out Three?
Quantum advances could expose some cryptocurrency holdings and force communities to choose between migration, restrictions, and the property rights of vulnerable coins.
- 1Post-quantum migration is becoming urgent as quantum research and cryptanalytic advances narrow the industry’s preparation window.
- 2NEAR’s flexible account design supports multiple cryptographic systems, while Ledger is adapting larger post-quantum signatures to secure hardware.
- 3Bitcoin faces a governance dilemma over vulnerable holdings, including Satoshi’s coins, with freezing them carrying major consensus and market risks.
Don't miss
Charles Guillemet lays out the choices Bitcoin could face over Satoshi’s potentially vulnerable coins, including freezing them or leaving them untouched.
The brief
Charles Guillemet opens with the dilemma quantum-compromised coins create: leave them alone, freeze them, or restrict their use—and risk liquidity, markets, and property rights.
Illia Polosukhin explains why NEAR built accounts around multiple access methods and cryptographic schemes, giving the network a path toward post-quantum migration.
The guests compare lattice-based and hash-based systems, weighing standardized algorithms against performance, key sizes, hardware constraints, and competing blockchain preferences.
Ledger’s challenge extends from protecting devices and infrastructure to signing transactions with much larger post-quantum keys inside secure elements.
The standout debate concerns Bitcoin’s vulnerable early holdings, especially Satoshi’s coins: freezing them may be practical, but deciding that could trigger a damaging consensus fight.
Across Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and other networks, the episode argues that quantum safety is as much a coordination problem as a cryptographic one.
What was said on this episode
23 statements · 11 positive · 7 negative · 5 neutral
Quantum computing continues to advance.
“the quantum computing continues to progress”
Listen at 4:44
Delaying migration increases exposure to future decryption of harvested data.
“the longer you wait, the bigger your time window is open for future decryption”
Listen at 10:12
Blockchain post-quantum migration is technically easier than migration elsewhere.
“in the blockchain world, so technically speaking, I would say that it's a little bit easier than for the rest of the world”
Listen at 10:41
NEAR can add support for arbitrary numbers of cryptographic curves.
“we can actually add any number of cryptographic curve support”
Listen at 15:10
Production-ready post-quantum cryptography for MPC does not yet exist.
“there hasn't been a post-quantum kind of cryptography for that yet kind of in production”
Listen at 20:34
Hash-based cryptography is difficult for hardware wallets and MPC solutions to support.
“hash-based are actually very hard to support by kind of hardware wallets, this multi-party computation solutions”
Listen at 22:27
Non-blockchain applications will use ML-DSA as their post-quantum signature algorithm.
“the rest of the world, non-blockchain world, they will all use MLGSA”
Listen at 24:12
ML-DSA produces smaller signatures and supports cryptographic MPC.
“MLGSA comes with plenty of benefits. The size of the signatures is smaller.”
Listen at 24:50
Ethereum and Bitcoin communities prefer hash-based cryptography for conservatism.
“the Ethereum community and also by the Bitcoin community”
Listen at 25:34
MPC is unlikely to be possible with hash-based signatures.
“it's very unlikely this to be possible”
Listen at 28:32
Solana prioritizes low latency when selecting post-quantum signatures.
“Solana Foundation. And for them, the main focus is to have the very, very quick blockchain, so limit latency.”
Listen at 28:38
Ledger will need to support all three post-quantum signature algorithms.
“we will have to support all of them”
Listen at 29:12
The Web3 ecosystem should converge on fewer cryptographic options.
“it's important for the ecosystem to converge to you know fewer options”
Listen at 34:09
Secure elements make extracting keys from stolen Ledger devices extremely difficult.
“it's extremely difficult to extract the keys from the SecureElement”
Listen at 44:56
Harvesting RPC traffic can reveal public keys for later quantum attacks.
“collecting traffic to RPC endpoints is a way to actually get a lot of this information out later”
Listen at 48:58
Ledger would continue supporting vulnerable and post-quantum-resistant chains if isolated.
“we would continue to support both of them”
Listen at 50:35
NEAR enables trading between assets across chains with different quantum security levels.
“we're allowing to trade between these different assets”
Listen at 51:21
NEAR is continually targeted by North Korean actors and other hackers laundering money.
“we're kind of constantly under attack by everyone from North Korea to regular hackers trying to launder money”
Listen at 52:00
Leaving Satoshi’s coins untouched would allow quantum attackers to steal them.
“if you do that as soon as there is the quantum computer capable of working cryptography they will be stolen”
Listen at 55:23
Charles prefers tail-emitting unmigrated Bitcoin rather than leaving it vulnerable or freezing it.
“I would tend to prefer the last one”
Listen at 57:01
Tail-emitting unmigrated Bitcoin would help address Bitcoin’s miner security-budget problem.
“choosing the third option is also helping solving this last problem”
Listen at 57:46
The Bitcoin community should quickly agree on and implement a solution.
“we should, as a community, like, set a solution and implement it as soon as possible”
Listen at 1:00:31
Freezing unmigrated Bitcoin is probably the most likely policy outcome.
“Freezing is probably the most likely”
Listen at 1:01:00
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.