Bitcoin Improvement Proposal BIP-360 Deploys on Testnet for Quantum Defense
According to BTQ Technologies, Bitcoin Quantum testnet v0.3.0 provides the first working implementation of BIP 360, letting developers test quantum-resistant Bitcoin transactions across their full lifecycle on a live network.
BTQ Technologies said it released Bitcoin Quantum testnet v0.3.0 with the first working implementation of Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 360, or Pay-to-Merkle-Root, moving the proposal from draft status in the BIP repository into a live testing environment. According to the company, the testnet allows developers, miners, and researchers to create, fund, sign, broadcast, and confirm P2MR transactions while observing mempool acceptance and on-chain validation. BTQ said the design is intended to address long-term quantum-computing risks tied to exposed public keys, particularly under Taproot’s key-path spending model. The release includes full P2MR consensus rules, SegWit version 2 outputs with bc1z bech32m addresses, Merkle root commitment checks, control block validation, Dilithium post-quantum signature opcodes in the P2MR tapscript context, and command-line and RPC wallet support.
- BIP 360: A draft Bitcoin Improvement Proposal, also called Pay-to-Merkle-Root, designed to support quantum-resistant transaction structures by committing directly to a script tree’s Merkle root.
- Taproot: A Bitcoin upgrade activated in 2021 that improves scripting flexibility and efficiency, but whose key-path spend design can expose public keys on-chain.
- Dilithium: A post-quantum digital signature scheme intended to remain secure against attacks from sufficiently powerful quantum computers.