Quantum Attack on Bitcoin: AI Agents Slash Resource Benchmark by 86%

Researchers working with AI coding agents have reduced a resource benchmark for a potential quantum attack on Bitcoin and Ethereum by 86%, according to a paper posted Wednesday. The quantum circuit designed to crack the cryptography protecting Bitcoin's wallets required significantly fewer resources, from 10.75 billion to 1.496 billion. This reduction in computing power could make it easier for an attacker to steal funds if and when quantum computers become powerful enough to carry out a full attack.

The challenge was part of ECDSA.Fail, an open competition launched by Eigen Labs in late May, where over 100 participants worked on circuits for secp256k1, the elliptic curve used to secure transaction signatures. The study's authors include researchers affiliated with various organizations, including Theta Labs and StarkWare. The findings suggest that migration away from vulnerable cryptography is already underway.

The NIST has standardized post-quantum replacements, and a draft proposal suggests deprecating classical public-key algorithms at the 112-bit security level after 2030 and disallowing them after 2035. This move aims to prepare for the potential threat of quantum attacks in the future.