StarkWare Tests Quantum-Resistant Bitcoin Transaction on Mainnet
A team at StarkWare has successfully tested an experimental quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction on the mainnet. The transaction, confirmed in block 964,199, used the Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) scheme developed by StarkWare researcher Avihu Levy.
The QSB scheme combines hash-based one-time signatures with computational searches to bind an authorization to a specific transaction, preventing forgery even if a quantum computer breaks elliptic-curve cryptography. The test demonstrates that Bitcoin's existing consensus rules can accommodate one form of quantum-resistant spending without a protocol change.
The process was expensive, costing around $150-$200 and taking hours of computation. Levy described QSB as a last-resort measure rather than a replacement for protocol-level protections. StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson believes a soft fork should happen in the future to upgrade cryptography across the network.