Quantum-safe transaction reaches Bitcoin mainnet

A quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction was mined on mainnet using Avihu Levy's Quantum-Safe Bitcoin construction. StarkWare engineer Tomer Giladi implemented the method, which moves coins into an output protected by hash-based security without changing Bitcoin's consensus rules.

The approach performs computational work before broadcasting the transaction. StarkWare says it currently costs several hundred dollars and uses a nonstandard transaction format that ordinary nodes will not relay. MARA's Slipstream service supplied the direct path to a miner for the demonstration.

The construction does not protect an address whose public key was already exposed before the transfer, and it does not make the Bitcoin network as a whole quantum-resistant. StarkWare continues to favour a protocol upgrade as the longer-term solution.

The result demonstrates a narrow migration path using today's rules. Making comparable protection practical for ordinary wallets remains a separate engineering problem.