Bitcoin Industry Mobilizes on Quantum Computing Threat with New Cryptographic Solutions and Funding Initiatives

Jul 21, 2026

As the Bitcoin industry prepares for potential quantum risks, Project Eleven announced in mid-July 2026 an unaudited zero-knowledge proof prototype that, according to the company, uses wallet key derivation paths to help verify ownership after Q-Day and would require protocol-level support before deployment. Separately, Galaxy launched its Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Initiative on July 21, committing up to $5 million in developer grants and forming a Quantum Advisory Council, while BIP-360 had entered formal review in February 2026.

Project Eleven ownership proof

▪Project Eleven introduced an unaudited post-quantum zero-knowledge proof prototype designed to verify Bitcoin wallet ownership after a quantum attack.
▪Project Eleven reported that its prototype generated proofs in 243 milliseconds and verified them in 40 milliseconds on an Apple M5 MacBook Air.
▪According to Project Eleven, the prototype implementation was developed by Jim Posen, lead maintainer of the Binius zero-knowledge proof system, with funding from Project Eleven.
▪Project Eleven said its proof system supports P2PKH, P2WPKH, and P2SH-P2WPKH address types, but real-world deployment would require explicit protocol-level blockchain support.

Q-Day quantum threat

▪According to U.Today and TheCryptoUpdates, a sufficiently powerful quantum computer using Shor's algorithm could threaten roughly 35% of Bitcoin's circulating supply, including early-era P2PK outputs and reused addresses with exposed public keys.
▪Coinbase's quantum advisory council warned in June 2026 that approximately 7 million bitcoins could be vulnerable to quantum attacks.
▪"Q-Day" refers to the future point when quantum computers can break elliptic curve cryptography, allowing attackers to derive private keys from public keys.

Key derivation path technique

▪According to Project Eleven, the key derivation path technique builds on "signature lifting" research originally proposed by Alon Sattath and Robert Wyborski.
▪Project Eleven said its technique uses a wallet's key derivation path to prove control of the parent key without revealing it.
▪According to Project Eleven, its prototype is approximately 16 times faster than a previous approach by developer Olaoluwa Osuntokun, which required 14.6 seconds.

BIP-360 protocol upgrade

▪BTQ Technologies launched the first working implementation of BIP-360 on its Bitcoin Quantum testnet in March 2026.
▪U.Today and TheCryptoUpdates reported that BIP-360 and BIP-361 reflect the logic of Satoshi Nakamoto's 2010 proposal to migrate Bitcoin's cryptography by a deadline tied to a specific block height.
▪U.Today and TheCryptoUpdates reported that implementing the upgrade approach they attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto would increase transaction data size by approximately 57%, which they said would raise user fees.
▪Bitcoin developers advanced the BIP-360 improvement proposal into formal review in February 2026 to lay groundwork for quantum-resistant upgrades.

Regulatory quantum security actions

▪Galaxy's initiative established a Quantum Advisory Council including Barry Sanders, Damien Bérubé, and Eran Tromer to guide research and grants.
▪Galaxy launched the Galaxy Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Initiative, committing up to $5 million in developer grants for post-quantum solutions.
▪President Donald Trump signed executive orders in June 2026 to accelerate the federal government's transition to post-quantum cryptography.
▪The National Institute of Standards and Technology finalized its first post-quantum cryptography standards in 2024.