With BTQ Technologies’ testnet, developers and miners can now experiment with quantum-resistant transactions.
BTQ Technologies has announced the release of the first working implementation of Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 360 (BIP 360), now live on its dedicated test blockchain.
For the first time, BIP 360 moves beyond theory and becomes an operational reality on the Bitcoin Quantum testnet version 0.3.0, a parallel blockchain designed to simulate Bitcoin’s behavior in a post-quantum scenario.
The implementation introduces a transaction format called Pay-to-Merkle-Root (P2MR), which changes how transaction data is recorded on the blockchain.
The defining feature of P2MR is the elimination of public key exposure during certain transaction paths. This modification could prove decisive if quantum computers reach sufficient computational power to break current elliptic curve-based cryptographic protections.
“BIP 360 represents the Bitcoin community’s most significant step toward quantum resistance and we’ve turned it from a proposal into running code,” said Olivier Roussy Newton, CEO of BTQ Technologies.
According to BTQ, the P2MR format maintains full compatibility with scripting functionalities that underpin systems such as the Lightning Network, as well as emerging frameworks like BitVM and Ark.
The architecture also removes the key-path spend mechanism introduced with Taproot, which, in a quantum attack scenario, could expose public keys to critical vulnerabilities.
The testnet includes full wallet tooling that allows users to create, fund, sign, and broadcast P2MR transactions end-to-end, making the upgrade testable under realistic conditions.
The Bitcoin Quantum testnet currently has over 50 active miners and has processed more than 100,000 blocks.
