BTQ Technologies launched the first working implementation of Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 360 on its Bitcoin Quantum testnet. The upgrade introduces quantum-resistant transaction structures and post-quantum signatures.
The testnet is a separate proof-of-work blockchain-starting from a new genesis block-not a fork of Bitcoin’s live chain. It uses an older Bitcoin codebase modified with post-quantum cryptography, including Pay-to-Merkle-Root (P2MR) to limit public-key exposure.
Christopher Tam, BTQ’s president and head of innovation, called it a 'quantum canary network'-designed to fail fast and reveal vulnerabilities before Q-Day. Over 50 miners and 100,000 blocks are already active.
But adoption remains the core hurdle. Tam stressed it’s not a technical problem-it’s social: convincing Bitcoin’s decentralized community to embrace change. Roughly 35% of Bitcoin’s supply remains exposed to future quantum attacks under current elliptic-curve cryptography.