Europol tells crypto wallet providers to begin post-quantum testing as exposure risk grows
Europol on Wednesday published two reports on quantum-computing security risks, with the cryptocurrency-focused paper identifying wallets as the most exposed part of the system. The agency said the keys used to control wallets and authorize transactions are the primary point of vulnerability, because a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could derive a private key from a public key and let an attacker spend the funds. At the same time, Europol said the hash functions securing blockchains themselves remain broadly resistant to quantum attacks, and it stressed that machines with that level of capability do not yet exist. Timing remains uncertain, according to the agency’s press release. The report says cryptocurrencies are not expected to collapse because of quantum computing, but argues that long-term security depends on early preparation. Europol recommends that wallet providers start testing and deploying wallets enabled for post-quantum cryptography, while blockchain projects should integrate post-quantum algorithms into their core protocols. It also warns that wallets with already exposed public keys have no cryptographic remedy; the only option is to move funds into new, unexposed wallets before any attack occurs. Drawing on a 2024 paper, Europol said upgrading every Bitcoin UTXO to post-quantum signatures would require at least 76 days of cumulative downtime, or about 300 days if only one-quarter of each block were reserved for migration. It also warned that NIST-standardized post-quantum signatures are 10 to 120 times larger than Bitcoin’s ECDSA signatures, which could strain block space and raise fees.
