StarkWare Tests Quantum-Resistant Bitcoin Transaction on Mainnet
StarkWare researcher Avihu Levy has successfully tested an experimental quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction on the mainnet, marking a significant milestone in the development of secure cryptocurrency 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.
The test demonstrates that Bitcoin's existing consensus rules can accommodate one form of quantum-resistant spending without requiring a protocol change. Levy's QSB method combines hash-based one-time signatures with computational searches to bind an authorization to a specific transaction, making it resistant to forgery even if a quantum computer breaks the elliptic-curve cryptography used by Bitcoin.
The test comes after Levy introduced his proposal in April, estimating that generating a QSB transaction would require between $75 and $150 in GPU computation. StarkWare spokesperson Nathan Jeffay confirmed that the completed transaction cost 'low hundreds of dollars,' estimating around $150 to $200. The process took hours of computation.
BIP-360, a proposed soft fork, aims to introduce a Pay-to-Merkle-Root output type while removing Taproot's quantum-vulnerable key-path spend. StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson believes that a soft fork should happen and is providing a safety net for the development of protocol-level protections.