Multiple authorization paths converging inside a hardware security module

Blockstream and Thales Put Bitcoin’s Entire Secure-MPC Signing Process Inside Hardware

By Isaac • November 13, 2026 11:13 pm • Comments

Blockstream and Thales are taking institutional Bitcoin custody back to a basic security principle: keep the most sensitive signing work inside dedicated hardware.

The companies have launched an enterprise custody system that combines Blockstream’s Secure Multi-Party Computation technology with Thales hardware security modules. Blockstream says the entire signing protocol runs inside the protected HSM environment, rather than exposing part of the operation to general-purpose computers.

In its Blockstream announcement, the company said the design keeps sensitive key material protected throughout a transaction’s lifecycle, including during signing. The product is being delivered through Blockstream Enterprise for institutional digital-asset operations.

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The companies describe it as an expansion of a two-year collaboration. Blockstream Enterprise is designed to help institutions deploy, manage and scale Bitcoin infrastructure while retaining policy controls and distributed signing authority.

Blockstream says conventional MPC designs may expose sensitive cryptographic operations to general-purpose computing environments. Its version keeps the complete protocol within the HSM’s protected boundary.

Michael Minkevich, Blockstream’s president and chief operating officer, framed the product as infrastructure for financial institutions integrating Bitcoin into existing operations. The company says hardware-backed key protection and distributed signing authority are combined in one system.

That is the real point of the release. Multi-party signing is useful because no single key share can move funds.

But a complicated protocol can still create attack surface if its most sensitive steps leave hardened equipment.

Secure-MPC divides signing authority among participants, then lets them jointly authorize a transaction without reconstructing one master private key in an exposed location. Thales supplies the hardened modules; Blockstream supplies the Bitcoin infrastructure and signing design.

Cointelegraph adds the operational argument from Blockstream CEO Adam Back. He said conventional MPC systems can become too interactive and complex for practical offline cold storage, and warned that AI-assisted attackers may become better at finding subtle implementation flaws.

The answer, in Back’s telling, is not another layer of software. It is to reduce internet exposure and make the security boundary easier to understand.

For banks, prime brokers and large custodians, that tradeoff is crucial. They need policy controls, auditability and distributed authorization, but every added component also becomes something an attacker can probe.

Blockstream and Thales are betting that institutions will prefer a model where distributed signing and hardware isolation reinforce each other. The system does not eliminate operational risk, and no custody design can compensate for bad policies or compromised administrators.

It does, however, narrow the place where the most valuable cryptographic work occurs.

As more Bitcoin moves into institutional custody, the winning security systems may not be the ones with the most moving parts. They may be the ones that can prove the keys never left the box.

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