Point Time Locked Contract (PTLC)

A Point Time Locked Contract (PTLC) is a way to control when and under what conditions bitcoin can be spent. With PTLCs, bitcoin is locked to a specific point on Bitcoin’s elliptic curve, and the funds remain inaccessible until a set time or block height is reached. PTLCs function much like Hashed Time Locked Contracts (HTLCs), but bring stronger privacy protections and can help lower transaction fees. These advantages make PTLCs a promising option for the Lightning Network and similar tools, potentially replacing HTLCs as the standard contract type. PTLCs become widely usable after Bitcoin implements Schnorr signatures, which is enabled through the Taproot upgrade.