en.Wedoany.com Report on Mar 23rd, US-based BTQ Technology recently announced the deployment of Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 360 on the Bitcoin Quantum Testnet v0.3.0. This proposal, named "Pay-to-Merkle-Root (P2MR)," provides a quantum-resistant output type and was added to the official BIP repository in early 2026. The testnet offers developers and researchers a real-time environment to evaluate quantum-secure transaction protocols, while BIP 360 remains in draft status within the broader Bitcoin ecosystem.
The P2MR output type aims to address cryptographic vulnerabilities associated with the Taproot upgrade. While Taproot supports script functionalities for the Lightning Network and BitVM, its key-path spending mechanism exposes public keys, making them vulnerable to Shor's algorithm on future quantum hardware. BIP 360 eliminates the internal key requirement by committing directly to the Merkle root of the script tree, preserving current script functionality while avoiding public key exposure to quantum attacks.
Version 0.3.0 includes end-to-end command-line interface (CLI) wallet tools and full RPC support for creating and signing P2MR transactions. Technical features include SegWit version 2 outputs using bech32m (bc1z) address encoding, along with five enabled Dilithium signature opcodes for quantum-resistant verification. The testnet currently has over 50 miners running, having processed more than 100,000 blocks with a one-minute target block interval to facilitate iterative protocol testing.
This deployment coincides with the approaching regulatory deadlines for Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) transition plans, including the April 2026 deadline set by the US federal government under NSM-10. BTQ is leveraging the Bitcoin Quantum Testnet to demonstrate practical applications of PQC standards, as progress within the Bitcoin Core codebase remains exploratory. The project aims to provide functional infrastructure for validating quantum-secure protocols to address the growing security needs of critical financial networks.
BTQ's business strategy includes operating a Bitcoin quantum mining pool, charging a 3% fee on block rewards. The company expects to accumulate approximately 100,000 BTQ tokens within the first 12 months of operation. Future revenue streams include Security-as-a-Service, quantum certification, and settlement infrastructure, targeting a projected $16 trillion tokenized asset market by 2030. These initiatives aim to support the transition from classical to quantum-secure blockchain infrastructure.
