StarkWare Cuts Cost of Bitcoin’s Quantum-Resistant Solution by 79%
Researchers at StarkWare have announced a significant reduction in the estimated cost to prepare a quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction—from around $320 to under $67—following a week of optimization efforts. The experimental Quantum-Safe Bitcoin (QSB) solution offers hash-based protection against future quantum attacks without requiring changes to Bitcoin’s consensus rules. Although so far demonstrated only in benchmarks, the cost reduction brings the technology closer to practical use by holders of large, exposed Bitcoin balances in emergency scenarios.
Development of Quantum-Safe Bitcoin
In April, StarkWare researcher Avihu Levy published the Quantum-Safe Bitcoin (QSB) design, proposing a way to add hash-based quantum-resistant protection without altering Bitcoin’s consensus rules. Levy described QSB as a “last resort measure” owing to its high costs and complexity, while continuing to advocate for protocol-level modifications.
The first QSB transaction was mined and confirmed on Bitcoin’s mainnet on August 26, with engineering contributions from Tomer Giladi and direct submission via MARA’s Slipstream service. The preparation required about 3,100 GPU-hours across roughly 100 GPUs, at an estimated compute cost of about $320, excluding transaction fees.
Optimization and Cost Reduction
On September 16, StarkWare partnered with Yukon Research and Eigen Labs to launch the Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Optimization Challenge, inviting developers, researchers, and AI agents to improve the efficiency of the software that builds quantum-safe Bitcoin transactions.
The challenge yielded 62 accepted improvements targeting two key computational tasks necessary for preparing a QSB transaction. As a result, the computing cost dropped by approximately 79% in benchmark tests, bringing the estimated cost down to around $66-67.
StarkWare explains that a per-transaction cost of several hundred dollars remains a demonstration, whereas around $67 approaches a figure that holders with large, unexposed balances might consider viable in emergencies.
Context and Future Outlook
These advancements respond to growing concerns that sufficiently powerful quantum computers could break elliptic-curve digital signatures used by Bitcoin, potentially enabling attackers to steal coins whose public keys have been exposed.
While research into quantum-resistant safeguards like QSB continues, StarkWare maintains that a soft fork—a change to Bitcoin’s consensus rules—represents a better long-term solution for comprehensive quantum protection on the Bitcoin network.
Why it matters
This news is significant for the Bitcoin ecosystem as it demonstrates concrete progress toward addressing the potential threat posed by quantum computers capable of breaking current security schemes. Reducing the cost of quantum-resistant transactions by nearly fivefold makes the technology more accessible and potentially viable for users facing high attack risks. However, the experimental nature of QSB and its off-protocol implementation indicate it remains an emergency, last-resort measure. The main quantum resistance effort is expected to come through consensus rule upgrades. This highlights the ongoing need for development and dialogue within the crypto community to secure Bitcoin’s long-term security against emerging quantum threats.
Prepared from the source material with AI-assisted editing and checked against the supplied facts.
Open original source ↗