El Salvador has redistributed its Bitcoin reserves to 14 new wallet addresses as a precaution against potential quantum computing threats.
The El Salvador Bitcoin Office stated in an X post on Friday: "By dispersing funds into smaller amounts, the impact of potential quantum attacks is minimized." The office added that each Bitcoin (BTC) address holds a maximum of 500 BTC.
The Bitcoin Office explained that once funds are spent from a Bitcoin address, its public key is exposed and becomes vulnerable—if this technology develops into a significant threat in the future, it would make it a target for quantum computers to crack.
Quantum research company Project Eleven stated in April that if quantum computers become powerful enough to break elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) keys, over 6 million Bitcoins—worth approximately $650 billion—could be at risk.
Previously, El Salvador had kept its 6,274 Bitcoin reserves (valued at $678 million) in a single address, but blockchain data shows that these funds were transferred to 14 new addresses on Friday.
While industry experts praised El Salvador's initiative, Project Eleven pointed out that quantum computing is still far from being able to crack Bitcoin. Bitcoin private keys consist of 256 bits, and no quantum computer running Shor's algorithm has been able to crack even a 3-bit key.
Michael Saylor, the designer of the Strategy Bitcoin strategy, stated in June that the threat of quantum computing to Bitcoin is merely hype, adding that if it truly becomes a serious issue, the core developers of the protocol and hardware manufacturers would implement fixes.
El Salvador's Bitcoin purchases were questioned in July, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reporting that the Central American country had not made any new Bitcoin purchases since February.
The country's Bitcoin Office did not directly respond to these allegations and continued to post information about its Bitcoin purchases on X.
El Salvador reached a $1.4 billion funding agreement with the IMF in December 2024, contingent on reducing its Bitcoin program, among other conditions—though these terms appear to be contentious between the two parties.
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