- BTQ Technologies has accelerated BIP 360 from a mere proposal to the testnet stage to advance Bitcoin’s quantum resiliency.
The threat of quantum computing to Bitcoin’s (BTC) cryptography has become all too real. Cybersecurity experts and cryptographers hotly debate its arrival. Still, one thing’s for sure: Q-Day looms, and up to 30% of BTC’s supply is in addresses vulnerable to the event.
The danger becomes more apparent over time. However, its scale and the actual timeline remain unclear. Nonetheless, the players across the digital assets sector are now unifying to safeguard the very anchor of the crypto industry, Bitcoin.
BTQ Technologies Executes BIP 360 on Testnet
Hot on the heels of Strategy’s (formerly MicroStrategy) declaration to lead a global effort to establish a Bitcoin Security Program last month, BTQ Technologies, a vertically integrated quantum company, has announced on Thursday the deployment of BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal) 360 Bitcoin Quantum Testnet v0.3.0. BIP 360 introduces the Pay-to-Merkle-Root (P2MR) protocol, which plugs directly to the script tree’s Merkle root.
The process eliminates the key-path spend that makes Bitcoin vulnerable to quantum attacks. In a nutshell, its distributed ledger conceals a user’s public key in the Merkle root of a Tapscript tree, ensuring that sensitive cryptographic data remains hidden until the transaction initiates.
BTQ claimed that, before its deployment on the Bitcoin Quantum testnet v0.3.0, BIP 360 had only remained at the formal proposal stage. Its move accelerates the real-world experimentation and validation of the post-quantum resiliency measure.
“BIP 360 represents the Bitcoin community’s most significant step toward quantum resistance, and we’ve turned it from a proposal into running code,” said Olivier Roussy Newton, CEO and Executive Chairman of BTQ Technologies. “Bitcoin Quantum exists to prove that quantum-safe solutions work in practice, not just on paper.
Key Features of BIP 360 Rollout on Testnet
The BIP 360 testnet implements live experimentation of the following features:
- Segwit Version 2 and bc1z addresses that let the network identify quantum-resistant outputs without interfering with the legacy of Taproot (bc1p) address types.
- Five Dilithium post-quantum signature opcodes offer real-quantum-resistant signature verification within the script tree.
- Full CLI wallet tooling unlocks end-to-end RPC (Remote Procedure Call) support, enabling developers to fund, sign, and broadcast P2MR transactions for the first time on testnet.
- Internal public key removal directs spends through the scrip path, making credentials resistant to exposure.
Testnet Updates
BTQ shared that its testnet has shown significant developments. These include:
- Attracting the participation of more than 50 miners
- Mining over 100,000 blocks
- Advancement to the fourth testnet phase
- More than 100 contributors, including cryptographers, developers, and miners
“By shipping a full BIP 360 implementation on testnet, we’re giving the entire industry a live environment to validate these critical protections before the quantum threat arrives,” added Newton.
