# Bitcoin (BTC) Quantum Readiness Report

> Bitcoin has a QRI score of 19.98/100 and is assessed at Stage 2 (Mitigation / Development) with medium evidence confidence.

Evaluation date: 2026-08-16. Review status: draft. Evaluated scope: Native asset (BTC), production mainnet scope, PoW/UTXO chain.

Bitcoin's production mainnet spend authorization remains entirely ECDSA and BIP-340 Schnorr over secp256k1 — both quantum-vulnerable ECC — with no post-quantum or hybrid signature support as of 2026-08-16. Draft consensus proposals (BIP-360 P2MR, BIP-361 Legacy Signature Sunset) and prototype work (Blockstream SHRINCS on Liquid sidechain, Falcon-512 demo fork, BTQ ML-DSA canary network) exist but none are activated on mainnet. Over 34% of supply has revealed public keys on-chain (BIP-361) and approximately 1.6 million BTC sits in P2PK outputs with permanently exposed keys (CoinShares), creating material long-exposure value-at-risk with no live migration, freeze, or deprecation path. Bitcoin's consensus and state integrity layers are hash-based (SHA-256) and quantum-resistant by design, but active spend authorization is entirely ECC-dependent. The Bitcoin Security Consortium (formed July 2026) demonstrates institutional coordination for PQ R&D. QRI Score = 20.0 (Stage 2: Mitigation/Development), capped at 40 by ECC-only production spend authorization. Users should monitor BIP-360/361 and PQ signature developments; no migration action is possible on mainnet today.

## Core resources

- [Bitcoin QRI report](https://qrindex.org/projects/bitcoin/): Human-readable assessment with score, stage, evidence, blockers, risks, and assurance notes.
- [Bitcoin structured report data](https://qrindex.org/projects/bitcoin/report.json): Complete report as JSON for deterministic machine processing.
- [QRI methodology](https://qrindex.org/methodology/): Scoring model, evidence handling, readiness stages, confidence, assurance, and report status.
- [All QRI project reports](https://qrindex.org/llms.txt): Score-ranked index of every published project assessment.
- [Bitcoin official website](https://bitcoin.org): Project-maintained website.
- [Bitcoin source repository 1](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin): Project source code referenced by QRI.



## Evidence sources

- [Evidence source 1](<https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0340.mediawiki>): Public source cited by the Bitcoin QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 2](<https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0341.mediawiki>): Public source cited by the Bitcoin QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 3](<https://github.com/bitcoin-core/secp256k1>): Public source cited by the Bitcoin QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 4](<https://bips.dev/361/>): Public source cited by the Bitcoin QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 5](<https://coinshares.com/research/bitcoins-quantum-vulnerability>): Public source cited by the Bitcoin QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 6](<https://bitcoinops.org/en/topics/quantum-resistance/>): Public source cited by the Bitcoin QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 7](<https://ostif.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/25-05-2133-REP-bitcoincore-security-assessment-V1.3.pdf>): Public source cited by the Bitcoin QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 8](<https://bips.dev/360/>): Public source cited by the Bitcoin QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 9](<https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin>): Public source cited by the Bitcoin QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 10](<https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesdigitalassets/2026/05/28/bitcoins-quantum-threat-timeline/>): Public source cited by the Bitcoin QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 11](<https://www.coinbase.com/blog/coinbase-joins-bitcoin-security-consortium>): Public source cited by the Bitcoin QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 12](<https://delvingbitcoin.org/t/thoughts-on-a-network-policy-for-quantum-vulnerable-utxos/1225>): Public source cited by the Bitcoin QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 13](<https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1967617/000110465925107645/tm2528451d1_ex99-1.htm>): Public source cited by the Bitcoin QRI assessment.
- [Evidence source 14](<https://blog.blockstream.com/op_checkshrincs-a-hash-based-signature-opcode-for-post-quantum-bitcoin/>): Public source cited by the Bitcoin QRI assessment.