[ExI] DIY Quantum Protection for Bitcoin

[Jason Resch]

My understanding is they most wallets already do this by following BIP 32
and BIP 39, which use a secret seed phrase (usually 12-24) seed words, to
deterministically generate new public/private key pairs for every
transaction, with the change from any transaction always sent to a new
address so the same key pair is never used again after the public key is
exposed.

I implemented this in a few hundred lines of python if anyone is interested
to see how it works:

https://github.com/gcnaccount/pywallet

Jason

On Mon, Jun 1, 2026, 2:35 PM Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Ok, so I think I have come up with a simple low technology method of
> safeguarding bitcoin against Quantum computing algorithms like Shor's.
>
> First you need to but 2 hardware cold wallets (e.g. Trezor, Ledger,
> etc.) Create a seed phrase to generate a public key with one of them and
> send your BTC to it.
>
> When you want to spend or transfer bitcoin, you set up (or reset) a seed
> phrase on your second wallet. Spend whatever bitcoin you need to and
> then transfer the remaining balance to the second wallet. When you
> spend/send bitcoin, the public key of the sending wallet gets exposed on
> the blockchain in a way that a quantum computer could use it to crack
> the private key for the spending wallet, so the idea is to empty that
> wallet completely. The public key of the receiving wallet is kept secret
> because it does not show up anywhere during the transaction. The only
> private key that a quantum computer could derive would be for the empty
> wallet that you no longer use.
>
> Then when you want to spend/send money from your second wallet, factory
> reset the original wallet and create a new seed phrase for it to
> generate a novel public. Spend your bitcoin from the second wallet and
> immediately send the remaining balance to the, now reset 1st wallet that
> has a brand new seed phrase / public key that has never been exposed on
> the blockchain and cannot be used to hack your private key.
>
> Then, when you want to perform another transaction, rinse and repeat.
> Always resetting and reseeding the unused wallet to get a fresh public
> key before use. With two hardware wallets, you should be able to keep
> this up indefinitely. It is a little bit of a hassle, but from what I
> understand of the bitcoin protocol, it should keep your bitcoins safe
> from quantum computing algorithms with existing technology. Let me know
> if you find a weakness in this scheme.
>
> Stuart LaForge
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