Oct 1, 2026
A week-long coding challenge organized by StarkWare reduced the estimated computational cost for quantum-resistant Bitcoin transactions from approximately $320 to $66, an 80% reduction. AI-assisted developers achieved the breakthrough by optimizing GPU code.
Researchers at [[alloc] init] published a specification for Shielded Bitcoin on September 24, a protocol for private transfers on the Bitcoin base layer that borrows Zcash's encrypted notes and zero-knowledge proofs without requiring consensus changes or a soft fork.
Bitcoin Core 32.0 entered final testing on September 14 with a scheduled release date of October 10. The major update includes improvements to fee estimates, faster block processing, and changes to default wallet protocols that may temporarily disrupt some popular applications.
A scan by Bitquery has identified 96,000 fake-address outputs that are clogging Bitcoin's unspent transaction output (UTXO) database. The analysis highlights how cheap OP_RETURN repetition and fake-address text impose significantly different costs on Bitcoin nodes.
Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr resigned as chairman and CTO of Ocean Mining Pool, with parent company Mummolin repurchasing his entire equity stake. The split was described as mutual, with both parties citing different visions for Bitcoin mining's future.
Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr has resigned from Ocean mining pool, with parent company Mummolin repurchasing his entire equity stake. The split follows disagreement over BIP-110, a Bitcoin improvement proposal that failed to gain sufficient miner support, reaching only 2.6% hashrate backing versus a 55% target.
Bitcoin developer Luke Dashjr has been removed as an editor of Bitcoin Improvement Proposals following a conflict of interest dispute over BIP-110, a controversial soft-fork proposal that stalled after gaining support from only two blocks and a fraction of mining power when it attempted to activate on Saturday.
A minority Bitcoin blockchain fork created by BIP-110 supporters split from the main network at block height 961,632 but stalled after producing only two blocks, with lead mining group Roughnecks announcing it has ceased operations. The main Bitcoin chain pulled ahead by over 18 blocks as the controversial anti-spam proposal failed to gain miner support.
Bitcoin's controversial BIP-110 proposal nears its activation deadline at block 961,632 (approximately August 8, 2026) with minimal miner support of around 2.4%, far below the 55% threshold, raising concerns about a potential network fork. Michael Saylor has called on backers to stand down, while supporters have prepared contingency plans including a proof-of-work hard fork.
D-Wave CEO Alan Baratz warned that quantum computing will eventually be capable of breaking Bitcoin's proof-of-work protocol, while IBM separately announced achieving 'trusted quantum advantage' using 70 logical qubits. The developments highlight growing concerns about quantum threats to cryptocurrency security.
PointsKash Inc. has introduced a kiosk infrastructure architecture engineered to function regardless of whether Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 110 (BIP-110) is adopted, as debate over the proposal intensifies and other Bitcoin layer-2 solutions like Ark gain mainnet traction.
BlackRock, Fidelity Digital Assets, Coinbase, Strategy, and other leading firms formed the Bitcoin Security Consortium, pledging $15 million over three years to fund Bitcoin security research, including post-quantum cryptography. The initiative follows Galaxy Digital's separate $5 million quantum readiness fund announced days earlier.
Galaxy Digital launched the Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Initiative, committing up to $5 million in developer grants for post-quantum cryptography solutions and establishing an advisory council to prepare Bitcoin for potential quantum computing threats.
Project Eleven unveiled an unaudited post-quantum zero-knowledge proof prototype designed to verify Bitcoin wallet ownership after Q-Day. Separately, Galaxy launched a quantum-readiness initiative on July 21 that includes up to $5 million in developer grants and a Quantum Advisory Council. Project Eleven's announcement came around the 16th anniversary of Satoshi Nakamoto's July 2010 forum post discussing a possible cryptographic upgrade path.
Coinbase's quantum advisory council released a report urging cryptocurrency developers to begin post-quantum migration work immediately, highlighting the vulnerability of abandoned Bitcoin addresses and warning that handling these dormant coins could become a major challenge for the network.
Security experts warn that artificial intelligence is accelerating the quantum computing threat to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, while Stanford cryptographer Dan Boneh cautions that a rushed post-quantum migration could cause worse failures than the threat itself. The concerns come as interest in vulnerable early Bitcoin holdings, including Satoshi Nakamoto's coins, intensifies.
In a research note published May 3, 2026, Galaxy Digital Research Director Alex Thorn reported that the Bitcoin community is coalescing around a consensus to leave Satoshi Nakamoto's coins untouched while preparing for quantum computing threats through post-quantum cryptography adoption.
Venture fund Paradigm proposed a new design called PACTs that would allow long-term Bitcoin holders to privately timestamp proof of key control before quantum computers arrive, creating a potential rescue mechanism for vulnerable early Bitcoin holdings without moving funds onchain.
Paul Sztorc announced a Bitcoin hard fork that would introduce a competing layer-1 blockchain and seven layer-2 networks, with plans to reallocate Satoshi Nakamoto's estimated 1.1 million BTC reserve to investors.
Independent researcher Giancarlo Lelli broke a 15-bit elliptic curve key on publicly accessible quantum hardware, winning Project Eleven's 1 BTC Q-Day Prize. The largest public demonstration yet of a quantum attack on Bitcoin-class cryptography, achieved on commodity cloud hardware rather than a national lab.
Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, disclosed that the U.S. military is actively running a Bitcoin node and testing the protocol's cryptographic architecture as a tool for network security and power projection, though not mining BTC.
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson releases a video calling BIP-361 a mischaracterized soft fork that would render 1.7 million BTC permanently unrecoverable. He tweets "Have fun stealing Satoshi's coins" directly at supporters of the proposal and argues Bitcoin's lack of on-chain governance makes the quantum problem unsolvable, while positioning Cardano's governance model as the alternative.
Bitcoin developers are weighing two approaches to quantum computing threats: BIP-361, which would freeze legacy coins over five years to force migration to quantum-resistant signatures, and BitMEX Research's 'Quantum Canary' bounty system that would only trigger a freeze after a proven attack occurs.
Following BIP-361's publication, Polymarket odds for "Will Satoshi Nakamoto move any Bitcoin in 2026?" climbed to 9.3%, up from 4.5% at the start of the year, drawing over $2.4 million in trading volume. Analysts noted the muted overall response suggests traders still view BIP-361 as a governance discussion rather than an imminent catalyst, but the doubling of odds signals growing market unease around Satoshi's estimated 1.1 million BTC.
Within 48 hours of BIP-361, three competing approaches surface. Adam Back argues at Paris Blockchain Week for optional upgrades over forced freezes. BitMEX Research proposes a reactive "canary fund" that only triggers a freeze if a quantum attack is proven on-chain. Justin Sun announces TRON will be the first major chain to deploy NIST post-quantum signatures on mainnet, though no technical documentation follows.
Jameson Lopp and five co-authors publish BIP-361, a three-phase plan to phase out legacy signatures and freeze any unmigrated coins within five years, including an estimated 1.1 million BTC attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto.
Wall Street broker Bernstein published research arguing that while quantum computing poses a real threat to Bitcoin, it represents a multi-year upgrade cycle rather than an existential crisis, with risks concentrated in older wallets and exposed keys.
Lightning Labs CTO Olaoluwa Osuntokun published a working prototype on April 8, 2026, that lets Bitcoin wallet owners prove ownership via a zero-knowledge proof of their seed phrase, without revealing it, providing an escape hatch if an emergency quantum-defense upgrade ever locks users out of their funds. Running on a consumer MacBook, the tool generates a verifiable proof in 55 seconds with a 1.7 MB output, closing a gap that had existed only in theory: how to protect Bitcoin from a quantum threat without freezing ordinary users out.
Google researchers published findings showing quantum computers may require 20x fewer qubits than previously estimated to break elliptic curve cryptography used by Bitcoin and Ethereum. The research suggests fault-tolerant quantum machines capable of threatening crypto security could arrive by 2029-2032, accelerating industry urgency around post-quantum upgrades.
A group of Bitcoin developers propose BIP-360, introducing a new quantum-resistant transaction type called pay-to-Merkle-root (P2MR). The proposal creates a migration path for new coins but leaves billions in legacy addresses unprotected.
CoinShares published research, pushing back on estimates that 20–50% of Bitcoin faces quantum risk, arguing only ~1.6 million BTC in legacy P2PK addresses, roughly 8% of supply, is realistically targetable. The firm said breaking Bitcoin's cryptography would require quantum computers 100,000 times more powerful than today's and narrowed the true market-disruption risk to just ~10,200 BTC concentrated enough to cause meaningful price impact.