Nine companies including BlackRock, Strategy and Coinbase announced the formation of a joint consortium to strengthen Bitcoin’s long-term security.

On July 24 (local time), blockchain media outlet CoinPost reported the group formally announced the launch of the Bitcoin Security Consortium on July 23. It said it will invest a total of $15 million over the next three years.

The participants are BlackRock, Coinbase, Strategy, Ark Invest, Blockstream, Block, Anchorage Digital, Fidelity Digital Assets and Galaxy Digital. The structure brings together bitcoin-holding companies and custodians, exchanges, infrastructure companies, payments firms and asset managers. Each company will separately choose recipients and disburse funds.

The consortium drew a line, saying it will not be involved in developing the Bitcoin protocol or changing specific specifications. Bitcoin development will continue to be handled by the existing decentralised global developer community, while the new body will focus on funding and providing information to strengthen security and resilience. Day-to-day allocation will be handled by Mike Schmidt, executive director of Brink, a non-profit that supports Bitcoin open-source developers.

The first task the body has put forward is preparing for quantum computers. No quantum computer currently exists at a level that threatens Bitcoin’s cryptographic system, but the consortium set achieving quantum resistance as a long-term priority. It said it will support the technical community preparing a transition to post-quantum cryptography.

It also defined two main areas of work. One is funding developers and researchers involved in Bitcoin security. The other is accurately informing investors, the media and the general public about what this security work actually entails. The consortium plans to release materials related to Bitcoin security within the next few months and update them as needed thereafter.

Participating companies see the body as a long-term support channel. Phong Le (퐁 레), Strategy’s chief executive officer, said, “As a long-term investor, we want to keep bitcoin safe indefinitely,” adding that providing funding to developers and taking part in related discussions is a natural approach for the company. BlackRock’s global head of digital assets, Robert Mitchnick (로버트 미치닉), also said, “Bitcoin Core developers are highly valuable,” and said the organisation can provide additional significant funding to support long-term security needs.

Work on quantum resistance has already begun at the individual company level. On July 21, Galaxy announced its own programme to provide up to $5 million to developers working on quantum-resistant solutions for Bitcoin. With the consortium’s launch, attention is on whether a move will continue across the institutional investor ecosystem to expand bitcoin security budgets as a separate track.

The consortium again made clear it is not an organisation that leads changes to Bitcoin rules. By limiting its role to funding and information support, it was read as an attempt to avoid controversy over centralised influence in the security discussion process. Accordingly, the security materials to be released, how funding recipients are selected and the scale of follow-on support related to quantum resistance are expected to be key indicators of its actual activities.