BTQ’s Bitcoin Quantum Testnet and “Old BTC” Risk, Explained
BTQ launched a Bitcoin Quantum testnet using ML-DSA signatures to explore post-quantum security trade-offs and the risks associated with already exposed public keys.Summary
BTQ Technologies launched a Bitcoin-like Quantum testnet on January 12, 2026, to trial post-quantum signatures using ML-DSA (FIPS 204) without affecting the mainnet. The primary quantum threat involves Cryptographically Relevant Quantum Computers (CRQCs) using Shor's algorithm to derive private keys from exposed public keys, a risk concentrated in legacy output types like P2PK, P2MS, and P2TR, which constitute the "old BTC risk." BTQ's testnet replaces ECDSA with ML-DSA, resulting in signatures 38-72 times larger, necessitating a block size increase to 64 MiB to study the resulting engineering trade-offs, performance costs, and coordination challenges of a post-quantum migration. The testnet serves as a sandbox to measure these operational costs, highlighting that the quantum threat is largely tied to historical output types and address reuse patterns, rather than an immediate, universal risk to all Bitcoin.
(Source：Cointelegraph)