{"id":49987,"date":"2026-08-27T10:05:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T10:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=49987"},"modified":"2026-08-27T10:05:55","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T10:05:55","slug":"starkwares-quantum-safe-bitcoin-transaction-reaches-mainnet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=49987","title":{"rendered":"StarkWare\u2019s quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction reaches mainnet"},"content":{"rendered":"

StarkWare announced on Wednesday that it has executed the first-ever quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction confirmed on the mainnet, which ensured that the coins moved into a hash-based structure are safe from attacks exploiting Shor\u2019s algorithm. This is significant not just for Bitcoin but also for other big blockchains, which rely on elliptic-curve signatures and ultimately encounter the same problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why has the whole market been watching this<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The potential danger is nothing out of the ordinary. If someone\u2019s Bitcoin public key appears in public records, a powerful enough quantum computer using Shor\u2019s algorithm could potentially discover their private keys and launch a hacking attempt.<\/p>\n

According to Glassnode Research<\/a>, a total of 6.04 million BTC, which accounts for 30.2% of the cryptocurrency\u2019s total supply, is quantum-exposed at rest. Of these 6.04 million BTC, 1.92 million BTC are structurally exposed because of the type of its output, while 4.12 million BTC are operationally exposed because of practices like address reuse and custody behavior.<\/p>\n

\"Glassnode
Bitcoin Supply by Quantum Exposure l Glassnode Research<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

That differentiation is necessary. Glassnode measures at-rest exposure: coins with public keys that are already known before they are transferred by their owners. However, a new danger arises in terms of spending when a concealed public key is revealed during the transaction process.<\/p>\n

Currently, there is no quantum machine able to perform such an attack. However, in 2026, Google experts calculated that breaking Bitcoin\u2019s secp256k1 curve<\/a> would require either 1,200 logical qubits and 90 million Toffoli gates or 1,450 logical qubits and 70 million gates. According to a simulation of a superconducting architecture, less than half a million physical qubits would be sufficient.<\/p>\n

How signature grinding shuts the mempool window<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This is where the demonstration by StarkWare comes into play. In regular Bitcoin payments, the private key can be exposed during transmission<\/a>. Hence, the quantum hacker could compute the private key of the transaction before it is confirmed and beat the original transaction to completion.<\/p>\n

Avihu Levy, the general manager of applications at StarkWare, invented Quantum-Safe Bitcoin (QSB) to solve this shortcoming without altering Bitcoin\u2019s consensus protocol. The QSB concept is based on Binohash and works by transforming the quantum-vulnerable part of the protocol into a hash-to-signature puzzle that relies on RIPEMD-160\u2019s pre-image resistance and does not depend on elliptic-curve assumptions broken by Shor\u2019s algorithm.<\/p>\n

Before sending the transaction, the sender conducts resource-intensive computations outside the platforms. By using Levy\u2019s suggested setup, QSB is theoretically capable of providing around 118 bits of second pre-image resistance against Shor\u2019s threat model. A quantum hacker would still benefit from the quadratic enhancement offered by Grover\u2019s algorithm, even if he wouldn\u2019t gain the exponentially higher advantage inherent in Shor\u2019s algorithm against elliptic curve cryptography.<\/p>\n

Levy\u2019s findings came to light in April 2026, with StarkWare engineer Tomer Giladi playing a critical role in the deployment of the first mainnet transaction using that method.<\/p>\n

The catch: a miner-direct path and hours of compute<\/strong><\/h3>\n

There are actual limits. In Levy\u2019s studies, the cost of off-chain GPU computation necessary to produce a transaction is about $75 to $200, while the abstract of the study says that the amount involved would be a few hundred dollars. Depending on how many GPUs are available, the computation might require a few hours to finish.<\/p>\n

QSB transactions can be classified as nonstandard by the relay policy of Bitcoin, which means they cannot follow a normal mempool path. Accordingly, StarkWare sent its transaction straight to a miner, and MARA inserted it via the Slipstream service.<\/p>\n

Importantly, QSB cannot help with the 6.04 million BTC already noted as exposed by Glassnode. If an attacker can see the public key long enough to find the private key in the future, then the attack can take place without waiting for the transaction in question to arrive. QSB serves as a way to safely store protected coins, not to secure all current Bitcoin.<\/p>\n

Why StarkWare still wants a soft fork<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Levy and StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson both say the durable answer remains a protocol-level upgrade. BIP 360 proposes Pay-to-Merkle-Root, or P2MR, as a new output type intended to support migration away from quantum-vulnerable signature paths. BIP 361 proposes a phased sunset for legacy ECDSA and Schnorr signatures; it notes that more than 34% of all bitcoin had revealed a public key on-chain as of March 1, 2026.<\/p>\n

For now, Ben-Sasson<\/a> presented the demonstration as breathing room rather than a permanent solution.<\/p>\n

\n

Avihu\u2019s breakthrough is important because it gives the psychological reassurance which we need and which the asset itself needs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He has previously compared crypto\u2019s approach to the threat with passengers on the Titanic. After Wednesday\u2019s test, he said the demonstration showed:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cthere are lifeboats.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Bitcoin traded near $78,620 as the news circulated.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The smartest crypto minds already read our newsletter. Want in? Join them<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

StarkWare announced on Wednesday that it has executed the first-ever quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction confirmed on the mainnet, which ensured that the coins moved into a hash-based structure are safe from attacks exploiting Shor\u2019s algorithm. This is significant not just for Bitcoin but also for other big blockchains, which rely on elliptic-curve signatures and ultimately encounter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49988,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bitcoin"],"yoast_head":"\nStarkWare\u2019s quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction reaches mainnet - Cryptomag<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=49987\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"StarkWare\u2019s quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction reaches mainnet - Cryptomag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"StarkWare announced on Wednesday that it has executed the first-ever quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction confirmed on the mainnet, which ensured that the coins moved into a hash-based structure are safe from attacks exploiting Shor\u2019s algorithm. 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