Bitcoin Developers Propose Quantum‑Resistant Migration via BIP‑361

Bitcoin developers have drafted BIP‑361, a five‑year roadmap to transition the network from legacy ECDSA and Schnorr signatures to quantum‑resistant cryptography. The proposal outlines three phases: restricting new transactions to vulnerable legacy addresses, phasing out legacy signatures over three years, and introducing a zero‑knowledge proof mechanism for owners to recover funds that miss the migration deadline. About 34 % of Bitcoin’s circulating supply is considered “quantum‑vulnerable,” exposing roughly 1.1 million BTC attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto, which the recovery system cannot protect because those early wallets lack the BIP‑32 hierarchical deterministic structure introduced in 2012.

Project Eleven has released a prototype proof‑of‑ownership tool that lets users prove control of a modern BIP‑32 wallet without revealing private keys. The verification runs in roughly 243 ms, but the tool supports only three legacy address formats, is unaudited, and cannot be used for pre‑2012 wallets. Critics note that the approach leaves Satoshi’s coins unrecoverable and that the prototype’s security remains unverified.

The broader discussion emphasizes that practical quantum computers capable of breaking Bitcoin’s cryptography do not yet exist, but researchers warn that preparing now can avoid a future emergency. Multiple stakeholders, including NIST and various cryptocurrency firms, are monitoring the post‑quantum transition, while the Bitcoin community debates the balance between security, usability, and decentralised consensus.