Insider Brief
- Project Eleven has raised $6 million to develop quantum-secure infrastructure for protecting Bitcoin and other digital assets from future quantum computing threats.
- The company’s first product, Yellowpages, is a cryptographic registry that allows users to link their current Bitcoin addresses to quantum-resistant addresses without making on-chain transactions.
- The round marks Quantonation’s first crypto investment and reflects growing urgency across Web3 and quantum sectors to prepare for “Q-Day,” when quantum computers could break current cryptographic protections.
PRESS RELEASE — Project Eleven, an applied lab of builders and technologists at the intersection of quantum computing and cryptography, today announced it has closed a $6 million fundraising round. The round was co-led by leading Web3 investor Variant Fund and Quantonation, the global leading quantum technology fund making its first crypto investment, with participation from Castle Island Ventures alongside founding investors Nebular and Formation.
The funding will accelerate Project Eleven’s mission to secure Bitcoin and other digital assets against the impending threat of cryptographically relevant quantum computers (CRQCs). Project Eleven aims to build out its team to develop next-generation cryptography that leverages quantum mechanics to secure/send information.
Project Eleven’s first critical initiative addresses the immediate vulnerability of Bitcoin. The company aims to protect the approximately $600 billion in value held in wallets with exposed public keys by enabling users to claim provenance over their digital assets today using post-quantum cryptography.
“We’re deeply grateful to Variant Fund, Quantonation, Castle Island Ventures, and all of our investors for their support and conviction in our mission,” said Alex Pruden, CEO of Project Eleven. “Their backing enables us to accelerate the development of quantum-secure infrastructure to protect billions of dollars in digital assets. As quantum computing capabilities advance, the threat to systems like Bitcoin is no longer theoretical, it’s imminent. This funding allows us to stay ahead of that curve, building the tools, standards, and ecosystem required to ensure digital assets remain secure in a post-quantum world.”
In conjunction with the funding announcement, Project Eleven is launching “Yellowpages” (yellowpages.xyz), a cryptographic registry designed to help Bitcoin holders prove ownership in a post-quantum world. Yellowpages provides a practical fallback solution, allowing individuals and institutions to secure their Bitcoin holdings without immediate on-chain transactions or reliance on potentially slow protocol upgrades.
Yellowpages enables users to:
- Generate quantum-resistant key pairs.
- Create a cryptographic proof linking their existing Bitcoin address to these new quantum-resistant addresses, without exposing sensitive information.
- Have their proof securely timestamped and registered in a publicly verifiable registry.
“We define Q-Day as the moment when quantum computers become capable of breaking the elliptic-curve cryptography that secures private keys used by Bitcoin,” said Conor Deegan, co-founder and VP of Engineering at Project Eleven. “Preparing ahead of Q-Day means ensuring that digital assets remain secure and verifiable in a post-quantum world. With Yellowpages, we’re giving users free, audited, and open-source tools to proactively establish quantum-resilient ownership today”.
Beyond Bitcoin, Project Eleven is committed to developing cutting-edge products and services that leverage quantum mechanics to create faster, more secure ways to transact and communicate in the digital world. The company believes that securing existing digital financial infrastructure is paramount and will unlock new opportunities for quantum-based technologies to transform how we interact with digital assets.
The $6 million funding round underscores the urgency and importance of Project Eleven’s mission. Variant Fund’s leadership highlights the Web3 ecosystem’s recognition of this existential threat, while Quantonation’s first crypto investment signals the convergence of quantum computing advancements and digital asset security.
For more information about Project Eleven and Yellowpages, please visit projecteleven.com and yellowpages.xyz.
