BTQ Launches ‘Quantum Canary’ Testnet; 6M BTC at Risk in Post-Quantum Shift

BTQ Technologies (NASDAQ: BTQ) launched the Bitcoin Quantum testnet today, deploying the first fork of the Bitcoin protocol designed to withstand attacks from cryptographically relevant quantum computers (CRQCs). The move introduces a production-grade environment to test the NIST-standardized ML-DSA signature scheme, a critical defense for the 6.26 million BTC currently held in addresses with exposed public keys.

The 64MB Block Necessity

The testnet replaces Bitcoin’s standard ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm) with Module-Lattice Digital Signature Algorithm (ML-DSA). Because post-quantum signatures are significantly larger, approximately 38 to 72 times the size of current signatures, Bitcoin Quantum implements a 64 MiB block size limit, up from Bitcoin’s standard 4MB weight unit.

This technical shift addresses a specific vulnerability: the “Harvest Now, Decrypt Later” attack vector. While addresses that have never spent funds (P2PKH) utilize a hash of the public key, keeping the key itself hidden, any address that has sent a transaction has revealed its public key to the ledger. This exposes approximately 30% of the total circulating supply to future derivation by Shor’s algorithm.

The math securing your Bitcoin, Ethereum, and DeFi holdings is on borrowed time. The clock is ticking.

Delphi Digital characterized the network as a “quantum canary,” a parallel chain intended to fail or succeed ahead of the mainnet, providing a blast radius for testing migration tools. The firm noted that without a preemptive migration path, the network risks a catastrophic loss of confidence once quantum hardware matures.

Federal Mandates Force the Hand

The launch aligns with strict U.S. federal timelines. Under National Security Memorandum 10 (NSM-10), federal agencies must migrate to post-quantum cryptography by 2035. The NSA has already mandated ML-DSA for national security systems, effectively setting the global standard for high-security digital assets.

Institutional giants have begun pricing this risk. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and VanEck have both updated SEC filings to explicitly list quantum computing as a material risk to the network’s integrity. With BTC trading near $90,500, the value sitting in exposed addresses exceeds $560 billion, a liability that ETF issuers are now legally required to disclose.