El Salvador has redistributed its Bitcoin reserve holdings into 14 new wallet addresses as a precaution against potential quantum computing threats.
“By splitting funds into smaller amounts, the impact of a potential quantum attack is minimized,” El Salvador’s Bitcoin Office said in an X post Friday, adding that each Bitcoin (BTC) address holds up to 500 BTC.
The Bitcoin Office explained that once funds are spent from a Bitcoin address, its public keys are revealed and vulnerable — making it a target for quantum computers to crack — should the technology evolve into a significant threat in the future.
More than 6 million Bitcoin — worth around $650 billion — could be at risk if quantum computers become powerful enough to crack elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) keys, quantum research company Project Eleven said in April.
Onchain transfers have been made
El Salvador previously held its 6,274 Bitcoin stash (worth $678 million) in a single address, but blockchain data shows those funds were transferred into 14 new addresses on Friday.
Quantum isn’t a worry, for now
While El Salvador’s move was praised by industry pundits, Project Eleven noted that quantum computing is still far away from being capable of hacking Bitcoin. A Bitcoin private key contains 256-bits, and no quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm has managed to even crack a 3-bit key yet.
Michael Saylor, the architect behind Strategy’s Bitcoin playbook, said quantum computing’s threat to Bitcoin is mere hype in June, adding that if it ever became a serious issue, the protocol’s core developers and hardware manufacturers would implement fixes.
“The answer is: Bitcoin network hardware upgrade, Bitcoin network software upgrade, just like [how] Microsoft, Google, the US government upgrade.”
El Salvador still entangled in IMF drama
El Salvador’s Bitcoin buys have been called into question after an International Monetary Fund report in July claimed that the Central American country has not made any new Bitcoin purchases since February.
Related: El Salvador’s Bukele reacts as $1B Bitcoin holdings bet increases on Kalshi
The country’s Bitcoin Office hasn’t directly addressed the claims and has continued to post about its Bitcoin purchases on X.
El Salvador secured a $1.4 billion funding deal from the IMF in December 2024 in exchange for scaling back its Bitcoin initiatives, among other conditions — though the terms appear to be under dispute between the two parties.
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