StarkWare Announces: First Quantum-Resistant Bitcoin Transaction Ignored by the Standard Network

StarkWare has announced the successful execution of the first quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction; however, since the transaction was not broadcast by standard nodes, the method does not yet provide permanent network-wide protection.

The development announced by the company demonstrates that a method developed against the possibility of future quantum computers accessing assets by spoofing Bitcoin transactions was tested on an actual transfer. The approach does not mean that Bitcoin has become fully quantum-secure.

In Bitcoin, the risk can emerge during the brief period a transaction waits before being confirmed. These transactions are held in a pending transaction queue called the mempool. During this wait, public key information that a future powerful quantum computer could use to generate a forged signature may become visible.

StarkWare’s Bitcoin transaction failed to pass through the standard network

Avihu Levy, Head of Applications at StarkWare, developed a method that attempts millions of candidates until a properly formatted signature is found, rather than accepting the first valid signature, to mitigate this risk. This approach is called signature grinding, and it aims to make the public key information of the selected signature less exposed to quantum computers. This process can require hours of computation for a single transaction.

The method has a significant limitation. Because the transaction did not use Bitcoin’s standard formats, it was ignored by standard network nodes and could not enter the public transaction queue. StarkWare stated that the transaction was transmitted directly to a miner ready to accept it and was verified through mining via MARA’s Slipstream service.

Although Levy believes this approach could temporarily protect Bitcoin against quantum attacks, he argues that a protocol upgrade is required for a permanent solution. StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson also said the method could be helpful until a permanent update that changes the network’s fundamental rules is implemented.