Researchers develop post-quantum defense for Bitcoin Lightning Network

Researchers at East Texas A&M University have developed PQLN, a proposed post-quantum security layer for Bitcoin's Lightning Network.
The system is designed to address 'harvest now, decrypt later' attacks in which encrypted information is collected today for potential decryption by future quantum computers. PQLN is designed to operate alongside existing Lightning nodes without requiring changes to Bitcoin itself.
The approach comes with a significant trade-off, requiring roughly 10 times more bandwidth. It represents a proposed defense against a long-term cryptographic threat rather than evidence that current Lightning cryptography has already been broken.