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Zach Herbert explains Foundation’s QuantumLink, a post-quantum Bluetooth bet for hardware wallets
For years, the gold standard of hardware wallet caution was simple: never let the device talk to anything. Foundation Devices built its reputation on that idea, and now it is teaching its newest wallet to use Bluetooth.
Zach Herbert, co-founder and CEO of Foundation Devices, has been walking people through QuantumLink, the company’s secure Bluetooth protocol for the Passport Prime hardware wallet. The pitch is ambitious: live connectivity, the kind of isolation air-gapped setups were built to provide, and encryption designed with future quantum threats in mind.
What QuantumLink actually does
Foundation’s earlier air-gapped approach moved data around with QR codes. One screen displays a code, the other scans it, and the information crosses the gap without any cable or radio involved.
QuantumLink replaces that shuffle with a real-time Bluetooth connection to Envoy, Foundation’s companion app. According to Herbert’s explanation, the link handles onboarding, transaction signing, firmware updates and syncing.
Foundation’s answer is physical separation. Passport Prime uses a dedicated, isolated Bluetooth chip that runs independently from KeyOS, the wallet’s primary security processor.
That chip carries the traffic, but it is never allowed to read it. Every message moving through it is end-to-end encrypted before it arrives.
The cryptography under the hood
QuantumLink relies on two cryptographic tools working in sequence. CRYSTALS-Kyber handles key exchange, the step where the wallet and app agree on a shared secret.
ChaCha20-Poly1305 then takes over to encrypt the actual messages. Kyber sets up the lock, and ChaCha20-Poly1305 keeps every individual conversation behind it.
Kyber is the post-quantum component of the stack. Its job is to keep that initial handshake secure even against attackers equipped with quantum computers, not just against today’s conventional machines.
#Write2Earn #zcash #zec $ZEC
Zach Herbert explains Foundation’s QuantumLink, a post-quantum Bluetooth bet for hardware wallets
For years, the gold standard of hardware wallet caution was simple: never let the device talk to anything. Foundation Devices built its reputation on that idea, and now it is teaching its newest wallet to use Bluetooth.
Zach Herbert, co-founder and CEO of Foundation Devices, has been walking people through QuantumLink, the company’s secure Bluetooth protocol for the Passport Prime hardware wallet. The pitch is ambitious: live connectivity, the kind of isolation air-gapped setups were built to provide, and encryption designed with future quantum threats in mind.
What QuantumLink actually does
Foundation’s earlier air-gapped approach moved data around with QR codes. One screen displays a code, the other scans it, and the information crosses the gap without any cable or radio involved.
QuantumLink replaces that shuffle with a real-time Bluetooth connection to Envoy, Foundation’s companion app. According to Herbert’s explanation, the link handles onboarding, transaction signing, firmware updates and syncing.
Foundation’s answer is physical separation. Passport Prime uses a dedicated, isolated Bluetooth chip that runs independently from KeyOS, the wallet’s primary security processor.
That chip carries the traffic, but it is never allowed to read it. Every message moving through it is end-to-end encrypted before it arrives.
The cryptography under the hood
QuantumLink relies on two cryptographic tools working in sequence. CRYSTALS-Kyber handles key exchange, the step where the wallet and app agree on a shared secret.
ChaCha20-Poly1305 then takes over to encrypt the actual messages. Kyber sets up the lock, and ChaCha20-Poly1305 keeps every individual conversation behind it.
Kyber is the post-quantum component of the stack. Its job is to keep that initial handshake secure even against attackers equipped with quantum computers, not just against today’s conventional machines.
#Write2Earn #zcash #zec $ZEC
