Bitcoin developers merged Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 360 (BIP 360) into the Bitcoin Core BIP repository this week, meaning it is now officially included in the list of proposals that developers may consider for future Bitcoin updates. The proposal establishes a new Bitcoin wallet address type to armor the cryptocurrency from quantum computing threats.
BIP 360 aims to resolve specific vulnerabilities in current Bitcoin address formats, particularly Pay-to-Taproot (P2TR) and Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK) address formats. These older formats expose public keys when users send transactions, which sufficiently powerful quantum computers could theoretically reverse to derive private keys to steal funds.
BIP360 originally introduced a new output type Pay-to-Tapscript-Hash (P2TSH), but the latest update changes the output type name to Pay-to-Merkle-Root (P2MR). The change is largely a semantic overhaul, but it doesn’t alter the technical substance of the proposal.
P2MR functions by hiding public keys behind a cryptographic structure known as a Merkle tree until the owner spends the funds.
Hunter Beast, a senior protocol engineer at MARA (NASDAQ: MARA) and co-author of the proposal, described the update as a necessary precaution.
“Ultimately, the introduction of BIP 360 and P2MR is a first step in a larger set of quantum-resistance proposals that will be necessary to quantum-harden Bitcoin,” Beast said.
The move comes as financial institutions increasingly flag quantum computing as a material risk to the cryptocurrency sector. Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) and BlackRock recently identified quantum advancements as potential threats in regulatory filings.
Estimates suggest that approximately 6.51 million Bitcoin, or nearly 33% of the total supply, reside in addresses vulnerable to quantum computing attacks. This figure includes coins mined by Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto in the network’s earliest days.
The proposed upgrade aligns the Bitcoin network with broader security standards set by federal agencies. The U.S. National Security Agency’s CNSA 2.0 suite mandates a transition to quantum-safe cryptography by 2030 for national security systems.
BIP 360 is designed as a soft fork, ensuring backward compatibility without requiring a more intensive upgrade. The implementation requires minimal changes to existing wallet and node infrastructure and does not necessitate an immediate increase in block size.
Charlie Spears contributed reporting.
Header image by RuinDig/Yuki Uchida via Creative Commons.
