Researchers Develop First Working Post-Quantum Security for Bitcoin's Lightning Network

Researchers from East Texas A&M University, North American University, Florida Gulf Coast University, and Florida Institute of Technology announced the creation of the first full post-quantum security design for the Bitcoin Lightning Network. This solution, implemented in Rust-Lightning, layers quantum-resistant cryptography—specifically ML-DSA digital signatures and ML-KEM key exchange, standardized by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology—on top of existing cryptography. This hybrid design requires an attacker to break both classical and new cryptography to compromise a connection or forge a payment request. The development, led by Dr. Ahmet Kurt, took about three to four months and involved roughly 11,000 lines of code.