Galaxy Spends $5 million to Prepare for Bitcoin Quantum Threat: Signature Upgrades Take Years—Coordination Is the Biggest Challenge

Author: CryptoSlate

Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow

Deep Tide TechFlow takeaway: Quantum computers can’t crack Bitcoin today, but the real challenge is that developers, miners, wallets, exchanges, custodians, and users need years to coordinate a defensive upgrade. Galaxy Digital’s $5 million funding program aims to kick off this marathon-like migration before the threat becomes real, but the money can only accelerate technical development—it can’t replace the hardest part of Bitcoin’s decentralized governance: getting the whole network to reach consensus and act in sync.

On July 21, Galaxy Digital pledged up to $5 million to help Bitcoin prepare for the quantum era. The plan will provide funding support when developers reach key milestones, while also funding research work and a quantum advisory committee.

Quantum computers currently can’t break Bitcoin’s signature security, but the plan aims to start migration work before this threat becomes reality.

The plan targets multiple steps in the transition stack: reviewing post-quantum transaction proposals, integrating post-quantum signatures, conducting formal security audits, and migrating software and institutional tooling.

Funding can accelerate these workflows, but Bitcoin’s decentralized governance still requires developers, miners, node operators, wallets, exchanges, custodians, and users to coordinate an upgrade. Galaxy says the design, testing, and deployment of this upgrade could take several years.

There are two timing windows for technical risk. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could use Shor’s algorithm to recover private keys from exposed elliptic curve public keys and forge valid signatures. On-chain, already-visible keys give attackers a long window. Most Bitcoin spending also exposes public keys while transactions wait to enter the mempool, creating a shorter window for faster attacks.

Bitcoin encryption won’t be threatened by quantum computing, for a simple reason: it doesn’t actually exist

The draft BIP 360 notes that pay-to-public-key, naked multisignatures, and Taproot outputs have long-term exposure. Address reuse, extended public keys, and wallet descriptors may also expose materials vulnerable to attack. Hash-protected outputs hide public keys until spending or other disclosures occur.

BIP 360 would add a new Pay-to-Merkle-Root output via a soft fork. This so-called P2MR approach abandons Taproot’s key path, limiting long-term exposure, and leaves room for stronger signature schemes in the future.

The proposal is still a draft and only covers the first exposure window. Protecting transactions after keys appear in the mempool may require post-quantum signatures.

This “quantum-safe” Bitcoin plan removes Taproot’s key path—and deliberately increases transaction fees

This is where Galaxy’s funding program can help turn research into reviewed code and migration tools, but the funding can’t choose Bitcoin’s final design or set the timeline for its adoption.

The second proposal, BIP 361, explains the operational scale. This informational BIP relies on a post-quantum signature proposal that hasn’t been specified yet, and outlines a roughly five-year transition after activation in two phases. Its timeline is just a scenario, not a deployed roadmap.

After selecting the design, the network still needs proposal and signature review, audits, wallet and node releases, institutional upgrades, and holder migrations. Users need time to move funds into the protected outputs, while existing signatures can still be used safely. Every dependency makes responding at the last minute more difficult.

Bitcoin’s quantum migration plan forces the network to choose between freezing and stolen funds

Broader cryptography projects have been working on multi-year timelines. In August 2024, NIST finalized three post-quantum standards, including two digital signature standards, and urged early integration because migration takes time. Executive Order No. 14412 directs the Office of Management and Budget to require designated federal systems to use post-quantum signatures no later than December 31, 2031.

These federal rules only cover government systems and don’t predict when quantum hardware will arrive. But they show why Galaxy wants to start early. Bitcoin still needs a thoroughly reviewed signature design, broad community consensus, and enough time for users to transfer funds—so research and tools can’t wait until the threat is near.