StarkWare Makes History with First Quantum-Resistant Bitcoin Transaction

StarkWare, the company behind the L2 solution Starknet, has made history by executing the first quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction on the mainnet. This significant milestone was achieved without altering the consensus rules of the network. The experiment used the Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) scheme, which adds an extra layer of protection to Bitcoin using hash functions resistant to quantum computer threats. Avihu Levy's initiative works by iterating through numerous options until a transaction with the desired cryptographic properties is found. This method is costly and slow, taking several hours and costing hundreds of dollars in computational resources per operation.

The transaction was conducted on August 26th and has already been included in a Bitcoin mainnet block. Due to its non-standard format, regular nodes do not relay such messages through the public mempool, so it was sent directly to a miner via the MARA Slipstream service. StarkWare emphasized that this experiment does not protect the entire network from quantum attacks but rather allows individual coins to be moved to an output with additional protection without altering the Bitcoin protocol itself.

The method also has limitations, as it does not help coins whose public keys have been previously exposed. According to StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson, the experiment demonstrates that owners will have an additional way to protect their funds before a potential upgrade to post-quantum protection is implemented in the protocol.