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Blockstream-backed researchers propose SHRINCS quantum-safe bitcoin signatures

The proposal aims to keep signature sizes closer to Schnorr by starting at 324 bytes, rather than adopting NIST post-quantum designs that could cut capacity to under one transaction per second.

Reported · Written up by our desk · Market Structure

CoinDesk reports that researchers at Blockstream, a bitcoin infrastructure firm with engineering contributions to Bitcoin core software for more than a decade, published a proposal called SHRINCS for signing bitcoin transactions in a way that would hold up against future quantum computers.

The report says the main risk is that quantum systems running Shor’s algorithm could break elliptic-curve cryptography by working backward from a public key to recover a private key, enabling forged signatures and unauthorized spending.

It adds that widely discussed post-quantum signatures standardized by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology could be dozens of times larger than existing signatures, which would reduce Bitcoin throughput by filling blocks with bigger data, cutting the network from about 6.5 transactions per second to under one.

CoinDesk also notes that SHRINCS is designed to avoid that capacity loss by keeping signatures smaller than typical post-quantum alternatives, starting at 324 bytes versus Schnorr’s 64, and that the draft does not include a completed security proof, reference software is not intended for production, and a soft fork plus network-wide agreement would be required.

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