First Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Spend
StarkWare said a transaction using researcher Avihu Levy's Quantum-Safe Bitcoin (QSB) scheme was confirmed on Bitcoin's mainnet — described as the first quantum-resistant spend, executed under existing consensus rules with no soft fork, in collaboration with MARA's mining pool. Per coverage, the test spent a 10,000-satoshi output secured by hash-based cryptography, cost a reported $75–200 in off-chain computation, required direct submission to the miner, and protects only coins moved into new outputs — not already-exposed addresses.
Quantum-Safe Bitcoin: no fork required
The clever part isn't the eight dollars of bitcoin that moved. It's that the transaction no quantum computer could forge was accepted by Bitcoin's rules exactly as they stand today.
Until now the quantum debate assumed protection meant a network-wide upgrade — years of argument, and proposals that end with vulnerable coins frozen where they sit. That fight is already running. This demonstration shows a third path: any holder can move their coins behind a quantum-proof lock, one transaction at a time, without asking the network to change anything.
Honesty about the fine print: each protected spend currently costs more in computing power than the test moved, the transaction was unusual enough that it had to be handed directly to a cooperating miner, and nothing here rescues the millions of coins already sitting behind exposed keys.
One expensive demonstration isn't a solution. But a fix that needs nobody's permission is the only kind Bitcoin reliably adopts — and now one exists.
Related storylines
- Bitcoin quantum threat responseBitcoin quantum-safe cryptography implementation milestone
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- StarkWare enables first quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction on mainnet · cryptobriefing.com · T2