BIP-361 Wants to Turn Quantum Security Into a Private Incentive for Bitcoin Holders
Six contributors from the Bitcoin (BTC) quantum safety house, together with Casa co-founder Jameson Lopp, have printed BIP-361. The proposal seeks to sundown legacy ECDSA/Schnorr signatures.
The draft proposal, titled “Post Quantum Migration and Legacy Signature Sunset,” lays out a three-phase timeline that “turns quantum safety into a non-public incentive.”
What is BIP-361, and What Does it Seek To Do?
BIP-361 builds on BIP-360, which introduced a quantum-resistant output kind known as Pay-to-Merkle-Root (P2MR). It addresses a key vulnerability in Bitcoin’s safety mannequin.
Recent estimates recommend that greater than 34% of all Bitcoin is stored in addresses exposed to quantum threat. Because their public keys have already been revealed on-chain, these UTXOs may doubtlessly be compromised by an attacker geared up with a highly effective sufficient quantum laptop.
The roughly 1 million BTC held in wallets attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto are amongst those that are exposed to a quantum menace.
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That threat is compounded by a detection drawback. The authors warn that Q-Day may only become obvious lengthy after the actual fact if an attacker withholds broadcasting transactions to conceal their capabilities.
“Prior to a quantum assault, it’s unattainable to know the motivations of the attacker. An economically motivated attacker will strive to stay undetected for so long as attainable, whereas a malicious attacker will try to destroy as a lot worth as attainable,” the authors wrote.
Recent analysis reinforces that urgency. A March 2026 paper from Google Quantum AI confirmed that breaking elliptic curve cryptography could require far fewer sources than beforehand estimated.
Moreover, a research by Caltech and Oratomic demonstrated that Shor’s algorithm could be executed at a cryptographically related scale with 10,000 qubits. That discovering has doubtlessly shortened the assumed timeline for a credible quantum menace.
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Three Phases of the Quantum Migration
The proposal splits the transition into three phases. Phase A, triggered 160,000 blocks (roughly three years) after activation, would block all sends to quantum-vulnerable addresses. This pushes customers to undertake post-quantum-safe deal with varieties throughout a outlined migration window.
Phase B arrives roughly two years after Phase A. At that time, nodes would reject all transactions that depend on ECDSA and Schnorr signatures, rendering funds on these addresses completely unspendable.
A possible Phase C would enable customers to recuperate frozen funds through a zero-knowledge proof tied to their BIP-39 seed phrase. However, this section stays pending additional analysis and neighborhood consensus, with no fastened timeline.
The BIP frames its strategy as a non-public incentive for holders to act.
“Fail to improve and you’ll encounter further friction to entry your funds, creating a certainty the place none beforehand existed.”
The authors framed the proposal as a defensive measure to shield the Bitcoin community in opposition to potential quantum-enabled threats. They additionally invoked a comment by Satoshi Nakamoto.
He as soon as famous that misplaced cash successfully improve the worth of remaining holdings, likening it to “a donation to everybody.” Extending that logic, the authors contended that cash recovered by means of quantum means would have the other impact.
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