Technology
Custody providers begin post-quantum migration planning for signing infrastructure
The near-term work is inventory and key rotation policy, not new cryptography, according to engineers at three providers.
Institutional custody providers have started formal planning for a transition away from elliptic-curve signatures, driven less by imminent risk than by procurement questions from regulated clients.
Engineers at three providers described the first phase in similar terms: a full inventory of where signature algorithms are used, including internal service authentication and backup encryption, not just on-chain signing.
On-chain signing is the hardest piece to change because the algorithm is fixed by each network's consensus rules. Custodians cannot migrate ahead of the chains they support.
What they can change is everything around it: hardware security module firmware, transport security, and the encryption protecting key shares at rest, where standardised post-quantum algorithms are already available.
Policy work is running in parallel. Providers are shortening key rotation intervals and reducing address reuse, which limits exposure of public keys before they are needed.
None of the engineers described a specific timeline for a break, and all cautioned that overstating urgency has historically produced rushed cryptographic deployments with their own weaknesses.
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