Researchers from East Texas A&M University, North American University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida Institute of Technology announced Tuesday that they have built what they describe as the first full post-quantum security design for Bitcoin's Lightning Network.

Whether quantum computers will one day break Bitcoin is a hot topic of debate — and researchers have also been examining what the threat means for second-layer systems like Lightning.

The project was first uncovered in a research paper published in September. The team said it added post-quantum cryptography to Lightning's communications, payment requests, and related systems, implemented in Rust-Lightning, an open-source Rust library for building Lightning applications. East Texas A&M University also publicized the work in a university statement.

JUST IN: East Texas A&M University students announce they've built the first post-quantum security solution for the Bitcoin Lightning Network pic.twitter.com/GJYL2a9g2G
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) September 22, 2026

How the Hybrid Design Works

Rather than replacing Lightning's existing cryptography, the solution layers new quantum-resistant cryptography on top of it. It combines ML-DSA digital signatures and ML-KEM key exchange — post-quantum algorithms standardized by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology — alongside the classical methods Lightning already relies on. Both were selected through NIST's multi-year public competition, which produced its first finalized post-quantum standards in 2024.

In this hybrid construction, an attacker would have to break both the new and the old cryptography to compromise a connection or forge a payment request. That pairing of classical and post-quantum algorithms has become a common transition approach elsewhere, with major web browsers and messaging apps adopting similar combinations in recent years.

Three to Four Months, 11,000 Lines of Code

The effort was led by Dr. Ahmet Kurt, an assistant professor in East Texas A&M's Department of Computer Science and Information Systems. According to the team, the build took about three to four months and roughly 11,000 lines of code — a complete working implementation rather than a small demonstration.

Why Lightning Faces Its Own Quantum Risk

Lightning lets users make fast, cheap Bitcoin payments through a network of off-chain channels instead of recording each transaction on the blockchain. Its cryptography could eventually be broken by powerful quantum computers, the team said, and that risk exists even if Bitcoin itself is upgraded, because Lightning maintains its own communication and payment systems.

The researchers added that their work demonstrates that Lightning's off-chain systems can begin preparing for the quantum era independently, while others focus on solutions for the mainnet.

The Wider Quantum Debate

Quantum researchers have warned that a time will come when Bitcoin's software — which underpins the biggest and strongest computer network in the world — will need to be upgraded to deal with quantum computing. While some crypto venture capital firms have urged action, top developers in the space have argued that many of today's quantum computers have limited capabilities.

Still, they have noted that development could arrive unexpectedly — much like recent advances with artificial intelligence — and some, including top Bitcoin infrastructure firm Blockstream, have started building solutions. The migration is underway outside Bitcoin as well: NIST's 2024 standards are designed to replace today's public-key cryptography across the internet, and the U.S. government has set a 2035 target for federal agencies to complete their own shift to post-quantum cryptography. For Lightning, the September paper and the Rust-Lightning implementation now give its developer community a working reference for how such defenses could be built into the software the network runs today.

This article first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.