StarkWare’s quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction reaches mainnet

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’s 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.

Why has the whole market been watching this

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

According to Glassnode Research, a total of 6.04 million BTC, which accounts for 30.2% of the cryptocurrency’s 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.

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