Blockstream Proposes SHRINCS for Quantum-Resistant Bitcoin Signatures
Bitcoin (BTC)
Editor:
Eugene Serbin
Crowdfundinsider.com reports that Blockstream researchers have introduced SHRINCS, a new signature scheme designed to protect Bitcoin from quantum attacks without severely limiting transaction throughput. Current elliptic-curve signatures could be compromised by powerful quantum computers, but switching to standard NIST-approved post-quantum schemes would drastically reduce block capacity. For instance, adopting the SLH-DSA standard would drop Bitcoin's throughput from approximately 6.5 transactions per second to just 0.36.
SHRINCS addresses this by using a compact, stateful mode that starts at 324 bytes and grows by 16 bytes per use, supporting roughly three transactions per second. The scheme combines a fast stateful path using an unbalanced XMSS tree with a larger stateless fallback based on SPHINCS+ for situations where signer state is lost. Security relies on SHA-256, the same hash function Bitcoin already uses for mining and addresses.
Jonas Nick and Mikhail Kudinov developed the construction, describing it as the first concrete post-quantum proposal built specifically for Bitcoin's constraints. They noted it is not the final word on the subject and lacks a completed security proof. The draft implementation is not yet production-ready, and adoption would require a soft fork and broad community consensus. Blockstream has already demonstrated SHRINCS-signed transactions on its Liquid sidechain.
How the market reacted
Whalio's own Binance spot order flow for BTC, measured when this story was written up on 27 August 2026. Not the outlet's figures.
BTC is trading at $79,023.75 with a 1-hour buy ratio of 53.1%, indicating short-term buying pressure is currently dominant. However, this momentum fades over longer timeframes, as the 4-hour buy ratio drops to 43.7% and the 24-hour ratio sits at 49.9%. Volume delta reflects this shift, showing a positive $2,646,283 in the last hour but a significant negative $31,690,156 over four hours. Over the past day, the cumulative volume delta is -$120,647,908, with net buying occurring in only 5 of the last 24 hours. This suggests that while immediate buying exists, the broader flow has been net selling. Spot volume for the period reached $1,148,236,056 across 4,284,527 trades.
The latest daily buy ratio of 46.7% sits at the 18th percentile of the last 322 days, against a median of 49.2% - weaker buying than most days.
Twenty-four hours later
What BTC did over the 24 hours after the story broke. The market moves for its own reasons; this is what happened, not what the story caused.
Was that an ordinary day?
The same Binance spot measurements for BTC, averaged over the days leading up to the story.
The current 24-hour buy ratio of 49.9% is slightly below the 7-day average of 51.6%, marking a 1.7 point decline. Trading activity has also slowed, with volume reaching just 0.54 times the weekly average. Despite this recent dip, the coin has seen a 14.0% price increase over the last 8 days. Total volume delta for that week was positive at $445,688,281. This indicates that while today is an unusually quiet and slightly less bullish day, the broader weekly trend remains strongly positive.