Is Trezor’s ‘quantum-ready’ wallet a marketing stunt?

Users on X aren’t sold on Trezor’s new “quantum-ready” wallet, claiming the term is akin to a marketing stunt and no different from any other hardware wallet implementing an update.

Trezor’s announcement of the Trezor Safe 7 claimed it was the “world’s first quantum-ready hardware wallet.”

It said, “When quantum computing grows powerful enough to challenge today’s cryptography, your device will already have the foundation it needs to adapt through future firmware updates.”

Trezor added that without this tech, “migration to post-quantum cryptography would force users to keep their keys on general-purpose computers, opening an entirely new set of attack vectors.”

However, X users weren’t too sure what any of this actually means, and claimed Trezor’s explanation in the support links “are extremely vague and high-level.”

Read more: Google’s quantum computer could break Bitcoin in two ways

Crypto influencer Gainzy called the marketing term “the dumbest thing I’ve ever read” and claims that the “quantum-ready” feature is just an update that’s years away.

He also claims “it’s like any other hardware wallet but costs 20$ more for a marketing gig.”

Others questioned what actually makes the wallet quantum-ready. One user joked that Trezor’s intern might not even know what it means, as they just repeated their prior statements.

What’s the deal with Trezor’s quantum technology?

In order to be quantum-ready, Trezor touts a number of rather complex design choices. Firstly, it claims to run three layers of security, a boardloader, a bootloader, and firmware.

The bootloader “installs and verifies firmware,” and is verified by the boardloader while the firmware consists of Trezors “wallet logic and interface.”

It claims that this bootloader utilises “SLH-DSA-128,” a stateless hash-based digital signature algorithm approved by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology as part of its post-quantum standards.

Read more: Microsoft’s new state of matter is a quantum threat to bitcoin

The “boardloader” is said to be ready to verify post-quantum firmware updates, but Trezor doesn’t explain how. Trezor also claims that the wallet will include “a post-quantum device certificate to prove authenticity in a post-quantum future.”

To achieve this, it says that a module-lattice-based digital signature algorithm will be used for attestation and check for fast signing and efficient verification.

All this is to protect against the dangers posed by quantum technology, which already has Bitcoin developers running scared and working to introduce a hard fork that may change the cryptocurrency’s supply.

Protos reached out to Trezor for comment and will update if we hear back.