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2025-11-18 20:33:33 UTC

lontivero on Nostr: Trezor Safe 7 is the first "quantum-ready" hardware wallet. But what does that mean? ...

Trezor Safe 7 is the first "quantum-ready" hardware wallet.

But what does that mean? According to Trezor official documentation:

> A 'quantum ready' device is a device which will be able to run post-quantum cryptographic updates.

In other words, in case quantum computing becomes a real threat able to break elliptic curve cryptography, which would allow bad actors to sign fake firmware, users will still be able to update the real firmware and verify its integrity and authenticity because Trezor firmware is signed with a post-quantum signing algorithm. That's pretty much all.


Does it mean that your money will be safe? No. In case elliptic curve cryptography is broken, the Bitcoin (or your shitcoin) protocol must be updated to support some post-quantum cryptography signing scheme first, but even in that scenario I'm pretty sure your Trezor Safe 7 will not help you much. Basically, because nobody can predict the future and design a solution for a scenario that is completely hypothetical. But there are also some more concrete technical reasons. For example, the new TropicSquare's secure element TROPIC01 (core element in Trezor Safe 7 architecture) is not a post-quantum cryptographic coprocessor, but it is highly specialized in elliptic curve cryptography and 256-bit hash algorithms.

It could sound like something that is easy to implement and looks awesome in the product's brochure—a pure marketing move to catch the attention of uneducated buyers. I think there is something of that for sure, but it is also true that it comes with some benefits:

* In case Ed25519 is one day broken, even when quantum computing is not a reality, Trezor would have a safe way to update its firmware
* In case quantum computers break elliptic curve cryptography and a Bitcoin update is deployed, Trezor could come with firmware that helps us move funds or gain time
* It starts implementing post-quantum technology in the Bitcoin ecosystem and pushes competing products to implement new cryptographic technologies

The question then is: are users better with or without that feature? Well, they are not worse off than before and they have some very small benefits in a highly hypothetical scenario, but if we take into account that a hardware wallet is something that should be designed to last for many years, then I think it is a net positive. Tiny, but positive.