Expert Says Satoshi’s 1.1M Bitcoin Can Be Protected From Quantum Threats

Researchers at a privacy-focused blockchain startup said their multi-layer quantum defense system will include a soft fork designed to freeze and safeguard dormant Bitcoin holdings.

Researchers at AmericanFortress introduced a patent-pending post-quantum signature scheme that could protect the global crypto ecosystem from future quantum attacks without requiring large-scale fund migrations.

According to AmericanFortress, the breakthrough could protect even Satoshi Nakamoto’s massive 1.1 million Bitcoin stash, along with nearly 5 million BTC held in dormant accounts, representing a combined value of roughly $400 billion.

Michal Pospieszalski explained that inactive and dormant wallets do not need to remain exposed to malicious hackers, who could seize the funds and dump them onto the market with unpredictable consequences.

However, Michal Pospieszalski said a major source of confusion involves older Bitcoin holdings. Because Satoshi-era wallets are “Pre-BIP32” addresses without seed phrase derivation, they cannot be upgraded automatically like newer wallets. Instead, a defensive freeze would be carried out through AmericanFortress’s protocol using a backward-compatible soft fork.

“Our quantum-resistant protocol would automatically freeze and safeguard those funds until governance decides how they should be handled after Q-day,” Michal Pospieszalski said, adding that a vote would eventually need to be held by the community to move, burn, or redistribute the frozen assets.

Expert Says Minor BIP Upgrade Could Secure Satoshi Wallets and Major Blockchains

“But this means even Satoshi wallets can be protected with a minor BIP, which we are working on,” Pospieszalski said. “This means integrity for Bitcoin going forward—and that’s just BTC. It applies to all other major chains as well, like Ethereum, Solana, and Tron.”

The announcement followed an $8 million seed funding round co-led by SAVA Digital Asset Fund, Moon Pursuit Capital and 0G Labs. Alongside the funding raise, a cryptographic paper was released by the firm identifying the specific network performance bottlenecks that have affected other post-quantum trials.

This week, a standard quantum-security test on BNB Chain was completed successfully, but transaction throughput was reduced by 40% during the process.

Unlike traditional methods that require entirely new blockchains or large-scale address rotations, AmericanFortress’s approach uses zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to verify master seed ownership at the moment of spending. The strategy introduces three separate solutions: Pre-BIP32 raw key protection, standard BIP32 quantum protection, and a high-speed “QBIP32” derivation scheme. Because the system integrates directly with existing curves, no performance degradation is caused by it.

“It’s just a node and wallet software update in that order,” Pospieszalski noted.

The threat facing crypto is highly concentrated, according to Michal Pospieszalski, who explained that while master seed phrases cannot be cracked by quantum computers, individual private keys can be reverse-engineered from wallet addresses whose public keys have already been exposed onchain.

Research indicates that more than $600 billion in crypto assets exist in this exact vulnerable condition, including 100% of Solana addresses, Michal Pospieszalski said, describing the issue as “common knowledge.”

For active users, migration to a quantum-proof level takes only 50 milliseconds through a simple wallet prompt, Michal Pospieszalski explained, adding that protection for dormant seed-derived wallets can be carried out programmatically at the base layer.

Michal Pospieszalski said the cost of implementing this quantum-proofing system is extremely low, roughly equal to the price of a single rollup transaction rather than requiring payment for every historical transaction individually.

Michal Pospieszalski revealed that AmericanFortress is actively licensing its SDK to Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchains in exchange for marketing positioning, though the firm remains open to exclusive acquisition offers.

The cryptographic methods for bitcoin are expected to be ready for discussion within the next few weeks, ahead of an official presentation on June 2 in Paris, AmericanFortress said.

Ultimately, Michal Pospieszalski sees this as a major turning point for the long-term survival of digital assets. “Sudden quantum proofing of Bitcoin is now possible,” he said.