Zach Herbert explains Foundation's QuantumLink, a post-quantum Bluetooth bet for hardware wallets

Foundation Devices wants Passport Prime users to get real-time connectivity without trusting the radio inside the wallet

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.