The cost of preparing an experimental quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction is now less than $67 thanks to optimization conducted as part of the Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Optimization Challenge. Previously, this amount exceeded $320, spent on the first such transaction on the main network, confirmed on August 26. The optimization took a week and allowed participants to reduce the cost of graphical computations required for transaction preparation. StarkWare researcher Avihu Levy introduced the concept of Quantum-Safe Bitcoin (QSB) in April, proposing a way to protect transactions from quantum attacks without changing Bitcoin's consensus rules. He described this technology as a "last resort measure" due to its high costs and complexity, while also calling for protocol-level changes. Recent optimizations have made experimental protection more accessible, especially for Bitcoin holders with large balances.
According to StarkWare, the first QSB transaction was mined and confirmed on August 26 with costs around $320, requiring about 3,100 GPU hours of work on about 100 GPUs. To further reduce these costs by 79%, 62 improvements were accepted during the competition, addressing two computational tasks. Currently, the cost reduction may make experimental protection more practical for Bitcoin holders, although the current optimization was demonstrated only in test conditions. StarkWare still considers the idea of a soft fork—a change in Bitcoin's consensus rules—a more optimal long-term solution for broad protection against quantum attacks, as powerful quantum computers could break the elliptic curve-based digital signatures used in Bitcoin.
The optimization event involved developers, researchers, and AI agents working to improve the software for building transactions, and its results show potential for increasing the accessibility of quantum-resistant solutions in the cryptocurrency industry. Thus, the results demonstrated that transaction construction costs within $67 could give Bitcoin holders the opportunity to consider protection in emergency situations when other protective measures are not applicable.
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