El Salvador has announced plans to split its vast bitcoin holdings into multiple wallets in order to protect against potential quantum attacks.

The Central American country owns roughly half a billion pounds worth of the cryptocurrency , having introduced it as legal tender in 2021.

The country’s Bitcoin Office said the move to split its holdings was part of a strategic initiative to “enhance the security and long-term custody” of its bitcoin reserve in the event of quantum computing advances.

“Quantum computers have the theoretical capability to break public-private key cryptography using Shor’s algorithm,” the government department wrote in a post to X.

“This cryptography underpins not only bitcoin but also many daily systems like banking, email, and communications. When a b

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