Postquant Labs has introduced the Quip Network post-quantum Bitcoin wallet, arguing that Bitcoin users can add quantum-resistant protection without changing the base protocol, activating a soft fork, or waiting for community consensus. The company said Tuesday that the product runs on Arch Network, an infrastructure layer that lets developers build smart contracts anchored directly to Bitcoin instead of using a separate chain or wrapped assets.
Quip adds a post-quantum signature method called WOTS+, short for Winternitz One-Time Signature, on top of Bitcoin’s current security model. The technique is designed to avoid reliance on elliptic curve cryptography, the class of math widely seen as vulnerable to future quantum computers. In Quip’s design, this protection sits on a Layer 2 system that processes activity above Bitcoin and then settles back to the main chain.
Launch lands in the middle of a broader Bitcoin dispute
The wallet arrives as developers and researchers argue over how Bitcoin should prepare for quantum risk. Two weeks ago, Jameson Lopp and five other contributors proposed BIP-361, a plan that would phase out quantum-vulnerable addresses over a fixed five-year period and freeze coins that do not migrate. That scope includes roughly 1.1 million BTC commonly attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto.
Paul Sztorc has advanced a different path through an eCash hard fork proposal. That plan would replicate Bitcoin’s chain and launch seven sidechains, including one built for quantum resistance, with part of the funding tied to reassigning Satoshi-pattern coins on the new ledger to investors. Both tracks have drawn criticism from the community.
Quip’s position is that neither a protocol-level migration nor a chain split is required. The report notes that Bitcoin’s last major soft fork was Taproot in 2021, and any future upgrade could still take years to reach activation.
Debate centers on what happens when keys hit the mainnet
The disagreement turns on a specific technical point. Lopp argues that Layer 2 protections such as Quip are not enough because a user’s public key is still exposed once a transaction is broadcast on Bitcoin mainnet, creating a target for a future quantum attacker.
Postquant Labs CEO Colton Dillion said the Bitcoin community has delayed a fix for years, even though Satoshi discussed the quantum problem. He said developers often estimate that any protocol upgrade could take 5 to 10 years, while Quip can offer similar protection right away.
Postquant Labs CTO Richard Carback said the model can reduce the attack window to as little as two blocks, or about 20 minutes. There are clear caveats. The wallet app is scheduled to launch next week rather than immediately, a third-party audit is still in progress, and the Bitcoin version is new even though Quip’s quantum-resistant accounts already exist on Ethereum and Solana. Arch Network itself also remains relatively early-stage infrastructure.
That leaves Quip as one engineering route rather than a final settlement of the debate. Sztorc argues that patchwork solutions show why Bitcoin needs a clean fork with quantum resistance built in from the start. Supporters of the Layer 2 route, including Quip and Blockstream’s hash-based signature work on Liquid Network, say better infrastructure can address the threat without altering Bitcoin itself.