Starkware Lands Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Mainnet Win Without Fork
Starkware has successfully executed a quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction on the mainnet without altering the underlying protocol. This achievement demonstrates that post-quantum-resistant transactions can be implemented using the existing consensus rules.
The transaction, which was mined on August 26, utilized researcher Avihu Levy's Quantum-Safe Bitcoin (QSB) construction. QSB replaces the signature risk associated with elliptic-curve cryptography with a hash-based security approach. This method uses signature grinding and much of the computational work is done off-chain before the transaction is broadcast.
The mainnet test required hours of GPU computation and cost between $150 to $200. Starkware engineer Tomer Giladi helped bring the construction to a working mainnet transaction, building upon Levy's research published in April. The successful execution provides reassurance that Bitcoin holders can protect their funds before consensus-wide protections are ready.
However, it is essential to note that QSB does not make Bitcoin itself quantum-resistant and remains an opt-in solution. Funds must be moved into the protected construction before they are threatened, and it cannot recover lost coins or protect funds whose public keys have already been exposed.