Overview
- Coinbase, which published a technical paper on Oct. 13, urged developers to begin a coordinated, multi-year migration to quantum-resistant cryptography because consensus changes and ecosystem moves can take years.
- The paper endorses flexible output designs such as BIP-360 (P2MR) and P2TRv2 so Bitcoin can add or swap post-quantum signature schemes without rebuilding transaction formats.
- For wallet migration Coinbase proposes a staged “1-of-2” hybrid where funds can be spent with existing ECDSA/Schnorr keys or a separate post-quantum key to let users adopt protections early.
- Coinbase stressed practical requirements for custodians, calling for multiparty computation (MPC) compatibility, stateless signing options to avoid stateful-algorithm pitfalls, and thorough testing of candidate algorithms including ML-DSA, SLH-DSA, FN-DSA and SHRINCS.
- The company said governance questions about dormant, lost, or Satoshi-era coins should be debated separately so they do not delay technical work, and noted it already holds about 5% of circulating BTC and is preparing custody systems while coordinating with researchers and industry groups.