StarkWare Nails Quantum-Resistant Bitcoin Transaction on Mainnet
StarkWare's researcher Avihu Levy has successfully tested an experimental quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction on the mainnet, marking a significant milestone in the development of secure transactions.
The transaction was confirmed in block 964,199 and spent a 10,000-satoshi output protected by Levy's Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) scheme. According to StarkWare, the process took hours of computation and cost 'low hundreds of dollars', estimated at around $150-$200.
Levy's QSB method combines hash-based one-time signatures with computational searches that bind an authorization to a specific transaction, preventing forgery even if a quantum computer breaks elliptic-curve cryptography used by Bitcoin. This approach is seen as a last-resort measure rather than a replacement for protocol-level protections.
StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson noted that QSB provides a safety net while protocol-level protections are developed, and that 'a soft fork should happen, and I believe it will.' The company's spokesperson Nathan Jeffay confirmed that the completed transaction cost around $150-$200.