Quantum-Resistant Bitcoin Transaction Confirmed on Mainnet
A quantum-resistant transaction has been confirmed on Bitcoin's mainnet, showing that some holders can migrate funds away from future quantum risk without waiting for a protocol upgrade.
The Aug. 26 transaction used a construction developed by StarkWare researcher Avihu Levy that shifts the critical spending condition away from elliptic-curve signatures and toward hash-based security.
This test is seen as an important step, but it's not enough to make Bitcoin quantum-safe. Eli Ben-Sasson, Chief Executive of StarkWare, warned that broader soft-fork solutions are still needed to protect the network at scale.
The workaround does not extend to coins whose public keys are already visible, with around 7 million BTC potentially vulnerable due to older address formats or address reuse.