I don’t usually write announcements about advisory roles. I’ve had several over the years and they tend to speak for themselves. But I’m making an exception for Project Eleven, because what they’re doing sits at an intersection I’ve spent over a decade working toward.
My involvement in blockchain and cryptocurrency security started in 2013. I was leading Financial Services cybersecurity at IBM when I gave the first keynote at the first World Bitcoin Conference held in APAC. The topic was bitcoin security. At the time, most of the cybersecurity industry had no idea what I was talking about. But the technology fascinated me, and I could see the security questions coming long before most people were asking them.
That fascination stuck. In 2016, I published what was, as far as I know, the first freely available blockchain and cryptocurrency security training material. I trained regulators. I founded Cryptosec, a company dedicated to cryptocurrency and blockchain security. Over the years I kept building between the cybersecurity world and the digital assets world, because both sides needed each other and neither side was paying enough attention to the other.
Now the quantum dimension has arrived, and the bridge needs to carry a lot more weight.
I’ve written extensively about the quantum threat to cryptocurrencies and the specific challenges of migrating blockchain protocols to post-quantum cryptography. The more I dig into this, the more I’m convinced that making digital asset infrastructure quantum-safe is one of the most complex migration challenges ahead. More complex in some ways than enterprise IT migration, because the governance is decentralized, the upgrade mechanisms are consensus-driven, the cryptographic choices are diverging across protocols, and the community includes vocal factions that insist the threat doesn’t exist.
That complexity is exactly why Project Eleven caught my attention.
Alex Pruden and Conor Deegan have done something rare in this space: they’ve built genuine technical credibility on the quantum side while maintaining deep roots in the digital asset community. Their 110-page quantum threat report is the most thorough assessment of quantum risk to digital assets I’ve seen. Their protocol engagements with Solana and Ripple are producing real engineering data, not theoretical hand-waving. Their open-source tools (yellowpages, Bitcoin Risq List, THINCS) are actual contributions to the ecosystem, not marketing exercises.
More importantly, they understand that the real challenge here is not cryptographic. The hard PQC algorithms exist. The real challenge is coordination: getting protocols, custodians, wallet providers, exchanges, and institutional holders to move in the same direction before the window closes. That’s a governance and adoption problem, and it requires people who can operate credibly across both the quantum world and the digital asset world.
I’ve spent my career being that kind of bridge. First between cybersecurity and enterprise leadership (at PwC, IBM, Accenture, and KPMG across four continents). Then between quantum computing and cybersecurity (through Applied Quantum and this blog). Now, with Project Eleven, between all three: quantum, cybersecurity, and digital assets.
Project Eleven’s announcement is here.
I’m looking forward to the work.
Quantum Upside & Quantum Risk - Handled
My company - Applied Quantum - helps governments, enterprises, and investors prepare for both the upside and the risk of quantum technologies. We deliver concise board and investor briefings; demystify quantum computing, sensing, and communications; craft national and corporate strategies to capture advantage; and turn plans into delivery. We help you mitigate the quantum risk by executing crypto‑inventory, crypto‑agility implementation, PQC migration, and broader defenses against the quantum threat. We run vendor due diligence, proof‑of‑value pilots, standards and policy alignment, workforce training, and procurement support, then oversee implementation across your organization. Contact me if you want help.
