Quantum-Resistant Bitcoin Transaction Successfully Tested on Mainnet

A StarkWare researcher has successfully tested an experimental quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction on the mainnet. The transaction, confirmed in block 964,199, spent a 10,000-satoshi output protected by Levy's Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) scheme.

The test demonstrates that Bitcoin's existing consensus rules can accommodate one form of quantum-resistant spending without requiring a protocol change. However, generating such transactions remains costly, with estimates suggesting it would take between $75 and $150 in GPU computation to create one.

StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson believes a soft fork should happen to upgrade the network's cryptography and protect against quantum attacks. He sees QSB as a safety net until then.