StarkWare contest cuts quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction cost by 79%

A week-long coding contest organized by StarkWare, Yukon Research, and Eigen Labs has reduced the estimated GPU compute cost of preparing a quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction by 79%, dropping the estimate from $320 to $66. Utilizing AI models like Opus 5 and GPT-6 Astra, developers optimized the underlying search code, boosting pinning throughput on an RTX 4090 from 146 million to over 880 million candidates per second. While the experimental method offers a consensus-free emergency option for high-balance holders, StarkWare maintains that a protocol-level soft fork remains the necessary long-term solution.

The Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Optimization Challenge

• ▪StarkWare, Yukon Research, and Eigen Labs launched the Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Optimization Challenge on September 16, 2026, offering over $20,000 in prizes
• ▪The Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Optimization Challenge invited developers, researchers, and AI agents to optimize the GPU code behind the Aug. 26 Quantum-Safe Bitcoin transaction to reduce transaction preparation costs
• ▪The StarkWare-led Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Optimization Challenge produced 62 accepted submissions across two computational tracks targeting transaction pinning and subset selection
• ▪Developers using AI models, including Opus 5, Fable 5.1, and GPT-6 Astra, set record-breaking marks during the StarkWare-led Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Optimization Challenge

Optimization benchmark results

• ▪The estimated GPU compute cost to prepare a quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction fell by approximately 79% from $320 to $66, an estimate not yet demonstrated in a second mined mainnet transaction
• ▪Benchmark tests on an Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU showed transaction pinning throughput increased from 146.09 million candidates per second to over 880 million candidates per second

Implementation of Quantum-Safe Bitcoin

• ▪Quantum-Safe Bitcoin, published by StarkWare researcher Avihu Levy in April 2026, adds hash-based protection to a bitcoin spend without changing Bitcoin's consensus rules
• ▪The first real Quantum-Safe Bitcoin transaction was mined on the Bitcoin mainnet on August 26, 2026, requiring approximately 3,100 GPU-hours and costing an estimated $320 in compute
• ▪Quantum-Safe Bitcoin transactions must be sent directly to a miner and only protect coins whose public keys have not yet been exposed

Quantum threats to Bitcoin cryptography

• ▪A Google Quantum AI research paper published in March 2026 reduced the estimated qubit count required to break Bitcoin's cryptography by roughly 20 times
• ▪A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could theoretically derive private keys from exposed public keys, allowing attackers to steal funds from Bitcoin wallets

Protocol-level quantum protection

• ▪StarkWare and its researchers continue to favor a soft fork as the preferred, long-term protocol-level solution for broad quantum protection on Bitcoin
• ▪StarkWare noted that a soft fork would protect all Bitcoin users at the protocol level, whereas Quantum-Safe Bitcoin only protects individual wallets

Debatable claims

• ▪Bitcoin should implement a soft fork for quantum security instead of relying on off-chain workarounds
• ▪Quantum-Safe Bitcoin is a practical emergency option for high-balance holders
• ▪Stanford cryptographer Dan Boneh warned that a hasty transition to post-quantum cryptography is more likely to cause a catastrophic bug than a quantum attack