Blockstream said a widely cited concern in the crypto industry — that existing hardware wallets are too constrained to support post-quantum cryptography — does not hold up, at least for hash-based signature schemes. According to the company, its research team tested five hash-based schemes across four mainstream hardware wallets: Jade, Trezor, Ledger and BitBox02. All tested devices were able to generate signatures.
The results varied by scheme. SLH-DSA took about 53 to 120 seconds per signature, while SPHINCS+ at the 2^40 setting was slightly faster. UXMSS using SHRINCS-B finished in 22 to 42 seconds. UXMSS with SHRINCS-L took much longer at 226 to 573 seconds because of the overgrinding technique, though that fell to just over 3 seconds with the feature disabled. XMSS needed 58 to 118 seconds in cold-start mode, but Blockstream said caching can significantly improve performance.
The team added that the test only covered hash-based signature generation. It did not include firmware verification or other post-quantum approaches such as lattice-based or isogeny-based cryptography. Those engineering questions, including cache optimization, are set to be explored in later research.
Blockstream said on X that a common industry concern — that existing hardware wallets are too difficult to use for post-quantum, or PQ, cryptography — does not hold, at least for hash-based signature schemes.
The research team tested five hash-based signature schemes on four mainstream hardware wallets: Jade, Trezor, Ledger and BitBox02. The schemes were SLH-DSA, SPHINCS+, UXMSS (SHRINCS-B/L) and XMSS. Blockstream said every device in the test was able to generate signatures.
Timing results across the tested schemes
Based on the figures shared by Blockstream, SLH-DSA took about 53 to 120 seconds to generate a signature. SPHINCS+ in the 2^40 version was slightly faster.
UXMSS using SHRINCS-B took 22 to 42 seconds. UXMSS using SHRINCS-L was much slower because it used the overgrinding technique, taking 226 to 573 seconds. With that technique turned off, the time dropped to a little over 3 seconds.
XMSS took 58 to 118 seconds in cold-start mode, though the team said caching can speed it up substantially.
What the test did not cover
The researchers said the work only measured hash-based signature generation. It did not cover firmware verification or other post-quantum approaches, including lattice-based and isogeny-based cryptography. The team said later research will look at engineering issues such as cache optimization.
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