Bitcoin mines first quantum-safe mainnet transaction: StarkWare

Bitcoin confirmed the first mainnet transaction using researcher Avihu Levy’s Quantum-Safe Bitcoin method on Aug. 26, according to StarkWare. Summary Bitcoin mainnet confirmed the first QSB transaction without modifying consensus rules or a soft fork. QSB replaces elliptic-curve security assumptions with hash-based protections designed to withstand attacks using Shor’s algorithm. Generating each QSB spend requires approximately $75–$150 in off-chain cloud GPU computation before broadcast occurs. Nonstandard QSB transactions bypass ordinary mempool relay and require direct submission to a participating miner. QSB protects legacy outputs but does not secure Taproot, Lightning channels or previously exposed keys. The mined transaction demonstrated that QSB can operate under Bitcoin’s existing consensus rules. It did not require new opcodes, a soft fork or changes by Bitcoin nodes. Bitcoin transaction moves security toward hashes Standard Bitcoin transactions rely on signatures using elliptic-curve cryptography. A sufficiently powerful fault-tolerant quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm could theoretically calculate a private key from its exposed public key. QSB changes the securi...