BIP 360, a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal aimed at protecting against quantum computer attacks, has been merged into the official BIP repo. — What is a BIP? Bitcoin Improvement Proposal—An official proposal to change the Bitcoin protocol. Merged = registered as an official proposal, but not yet implemented in Bitcoin. A soft fork (backward-compatible upgrade) is required. — The problem BIP 360 addresses: If quantum computers become sufficiently advanced, they could break Bitcoin's encryption (elliptic curve cryptography, ECC). Specifically: 1) Quantum computers can use the Shor algorithm to trace back a public key to a private key. 2) Among current Bitcoin addresses, Taproot (bc1p) addresses and P2PK addresses (including Satoshi Coin) are particularly vulnerable because their public keys are exposed on the blockchain. 3) This is called a "long exposure attack"—a situation where a hacker has time to crack the public key. — BIP 360's solution: P2MR (Pay-to-Merkle-Root) • New address format: starts with bc1z • Functions almost identically to the existing Taproot (P2TR), but does not expose the public key to the blockchain. • Instead of the public key, only the Merkle root (hash value) of the script tree is committed. • Hashes cannot be traced back on a quantum computer → Safe from long-exposure attacks. Limitations: — Only defends against long-exposure attacks. • Does not yet prevent "short-exposure attacks," where the public key is briefly exposed in the mempool upon sending a transaction (this is a complete post-quantum signature). (Required) • Still in Draft status, soft fork consensus required. To put it simply in legal terms, this means policy discussions have begun. It hasn't been passed. — The remaining steps after the merge: 1. Community review/discussion — Developers review code, conduct security analysis, and provide feedback. This can take months to years. 2. Reference implementation — Code is integrated into real software like Bitcoin Core. 3. Testnet deployment — Verification on a test network, not the actual Bitcoin. 4. Soft fork activation — Miners/node operators must agree. Even with Taproot, it took approximately three years from proposal to activation (BIP 341: Proposed in 2020 → Activated in November 2021). 5. User adoption — Wallets and exchanges must support bc1z addresses for actual use. Current status of BIP 360: Draft. Not even the first stage has been completed. Even if BIP 360 is implemented, it's not completely safe. • Only coins transferred to bc1z addresses are protected. • Existing addresses (especially Taproot and Satoshi coins with exposed public keys) remain vulnerable. • Cannot prevent short-term exposure attacks at the moment of sending (separate proposal required).