Solana developers have created a cryptocurrency storage that is not afraid of quantum computing. How does it work?

The Danger of Quantum Computers for Cryptocurrencies

As we have already noted, more powerful quantum computers are capable of crossing out the security of blockchains, which in turn could devalue the native cryptocurrencies that underlie them. Why would this happen?

If the owner of a computing device can hack any address on the blockchain and empty it, then it’s only a matter of time before a particular wallet is hacked. And since investors can’t guarantee the safety of their cryptocurrency, they will dump it in an attempt to preserve some value.

The latest buzz around the impact of quantum computers on cryptography comes after Google launched its quantum computing chip, Willow. As we reported earlier, it can solve a large-scale computational problem in less than five minutes. By comparison, the most modern supercomputers would take 10 septillion years to solve the same problem.

However, there is no need to worry about the upcoming hack of Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency network. As Kevin Rose, a senior product manager at Google, noted, a quantum computer with 13 million qubits is capable of breaking the encryption in BTC. And Willow’s current figure is only 105 qubits.

Although this does not mean that developers should not care about the security of their own products. The first steps in this direction were made by representatives of the Winternitz team.

Which cryptocurrencies are protected from quantum computing

According to the Winternitz developers on Twitter , they have created a quantum-resistant storage called the Solana Winternitz Vault that is immune to threats from advanced computing devices. As Cointelegraph notes , they have done this by implementing a complex hash-based system that generates new keys for each transaction.

Cryptography researcher and Zeus Network chief scientist Dean Little notes that creating new private keys for each transfer would make it much more difficult for quantum computer owners to carry out a planned attack on a specific set of public keys. In theory, even a successful hack could be pointless for hackers, since by the time the attack is complete, the private keys they obtained would no longer be relevant for controlling the address .

It is important to understand that the Winternitz storage is an optional solution, and not an update to all wallets in the Solana network. Accordingly, in order to interact with it, users will have to transfer their own coins to a specific wallet, rather than keep them on their own.


Of course, many investors would prefer to refuse such a thing, in addition, the project page on GitHub contains an instruction to use the new product at your own risk. However, the initiative of the developers is encouraging in any case and hints that in the future, the system of protection against potential problems due to quantum computers will be much more thought out and widespread.


How does quantum computing protection work in cryptocurrencies?

Here are the details of how Winternitz’s solution works.

1. First, the Winternitz store generates a new key pair and computes the Merkle root of the public key using the Keccak256 algorithm;
2. Next, a “split” storage is created, consisting of a split and return account. Here, the user generates a Winternitz signature for the message, which specifies the amount of “lamports” to transfer – this is the minimum unit of the Solana cryptocurrency, equal to 0.000000001 SOL;
3. After the transfer is completed, the remaining coins are sent to the return account and the storage is closed. Thus, the wallet is protected and irrelevant for possible hacking.

The developers explained some details of what was happening in the description of their project on GitHub. Here is a comment regarding the protection of cryptocurrency storage from quantum computing.

The scheme provides at least 112-bit quantum collision protection and 224-bit reverse engineering security for lattice hashes , and 128-bit collision protection and 256-bit reverse engineering security for the public key’s Merkle root. And while the original Winternitz scheme uses untouched Sha256 hashes, Keccak is much more resistant to message extension attacks . In the pruned scenario, it is the better choice.

The experts also emphasized the importance of a one-time use solution. Here is a quote.

Winternitz signatures are only suitable for one-time use. However, with each message signing you reveal approximately half of your private key, which reduces the level of security. That is why with each expenditure of funds we close old repositories and create new ones.

The developers emphasize that the solution is experimental, which means that you need to be careful when interacting with it.


The topic of the danger of quantum computing for modern blockchains is very difficult for ordinary crypto users. To understand it in small details, it is necessary to study a lot of materials and documents. However, the conclusion from what is happening is obvious: developers are already trying to protect themselves from the possible influence of high-performance devices and even achieve certain successes.