Case Study: Santander Group achieves crypto-agility with HashiCorp Vault

HashiCorp Vault for Crypto-Agility

Santander Group, through its blockchain research lab, needed a way to bridge the gap between traditional cybersecurity controls and the rapidly evolving cryptography used in blockchain. In particular, the team wanted to sign Ethereum transactions securely while avoiding the risky approach of keeping private keys in software memory, and they looked to HashiCorp Vault for a crypto-agility solution.

HashiCorp implemented a Vault plugin that handled the signing workflow inside a permissioned, policy-controlled environment, using external cryptographic libraries to generate standard ECDSA signatures and then transform them into Ethereum’s required transaction format. The solution kept private keys protected, supported secure key and address handling, and enabled Santander Group to solve a specific blockchain infrastructure problem without exposing sensitive keys; the case study does not provide a quantified business impact.

Santander Group

Przemyslaw Siemion

Research Lead