Bitcoin Fortifies Against Quantum Threats as Solana Inflation Slows

Two significant developments have been made to protect Bitcoin from potential quantum attacks. Avihu Levy, a researcher at StarkWare, tested an experimental quantum-resistant transaction on the mainnet that uses the Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) scheme. This scheme combines hash-based one-time signatures with computational searches that bind an authorization to a specific transaction.

The QSB scheme was used in a 10,000-satoshi output, and while it works, it's more of a last resort than a practical measure due to the high costs and processing times involved. Each transaction takes hours to process and costs between $150 to $200.

Long-term upgrades are also being explored to protect every transaction. On August 27, Blockstream researchers published a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) to upgrade Bitcoin with the SHRINCS signature scheme. This proposal slimmed down a huge hash-based post-quantum signature by about 13.23 times.

The SHRINCS signature is still larger than Bitcoin's existing signatures and comes with trade-offs, but it's considered a good compromise among current options. The researchers acknowledged that it's not optimal along every axis but believe it's a viable solution for now.