Bitcoin's Quantum Safe Solution Drops to $67, Now Within Reach
A quantum-safe solution for Bitcoin has just become significantly more affordable. The estimated computational cost to prepare a quantum-resistant transaction on the network has fallen below $67, down from around $320 spent on the first such mainnet transaction in August.
This reduction is thanks to optimizations found by participants in the Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Optimization Challenge, which pushed down the GPU computation needed to build a quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction. The challenge was launched on September 16 by StarkWare, Yukon Research, and Eigen Labs to find ways to bring down the cost.
The latest optimization has only been demonstrated in benchmark tests, but it could make the experimental defense against future quantum attacks more practical for Bitcoin holders. StarkWare researcher Avihu Levy described Quantum-Safe Bitcoin as a 'last resort measure' due to costs and complexity when he published its design in April.