What is bunker mode?

Bunker mode is Justin Drake’s name for a calm, controlled move of crypto to addresses whose public keys are still hidden behind a hash, in case elliptic curves break sooner than expected.

Also called crypto bunker mode or quantum migration.

Where it comes from

On 7 October 2026 Justin Drake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, called on the blockchain industry to “calmly begin planning for bunker mode.” He warned that AI-driven mathematics could break ECDSA before quantum computers do, “in the worst case in months not years,” and asked holders neither to rush nor to panic.

What holders do

Holders, starting with large and sophisticated ones, move the bulk of their funds to addresses that have never signed a transaction. Whenever they do sign one, they move what is left to a new address.

The privacy problem

Every move is a public transaction that ties the old address to the new one. Millions of moves in a few weeks would draw a map of who held what and where it went.

In Redacted

Redacted’s bunker mode is a quantum-safe mode for your private account, built on hashes, with the same DeFi as standard mode. Moving into it takes one click, and moving your coins into Redacted leaves no transaction between your old wallet and where they end up.

Bunker mode →

Related terms

Post-quantum cryptographyPost-quantum cryptography is cryptography built to stay secure against quantum computers, which could break the elliptic curves and RSA that most wallets and websites rely on today.Exposed public keyA public key is exposed once it appears on the chain, usually the first time its address signs a transaction. Until then most addresses show only a hash of the key, which gives a key-breaking attacker nothing to start from.Hash functionA hash function turns any input into a short fingerprint of fixed size. The same input always gives the same fingerprint, and nobody can work back from it or find two inputs that share one.STARKA STARK is a zero-knowledge proof built from hash functions alone. It needs no trusted setup and no elliptic curves, so it is expected to hold up against quantum computers.Linked addressesLinked addresses are addresses that chain analysis attributes to the same owner, most often because they were spent together in one Bitcoin transaction. Once one of them is tied to a name, all of them are.

Sources: Ethereum researcher Justin Drake calls for “bunker mode” planning, The Block, 7 October 2026

Updated October 12, 2026. All terms