Developers cut quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction costs by 79%
StarkWare's Quantum-Safe Bitcoin (QSB) method uses hash-based cryptography to move Bitcoin without a protocol change as a long-term contingency against quantum attacks. StarkWare mined the first QSB transaction on August 26, using roughly 3,100 GPU-hours and about $320 in compute. A September 16 optimization challenge with Yukon Research and Eigen Labs drew 62 submissions, many AI-assisted, and improved pinning speed on an RTX 4090 from about 146 million to over 880 million candidates per second, cutting the estimated GPU compute cost to roughly $66; the result is not yet proven in a second mined transaction and excludes network fees.
AI-driven optimizations cut estimated QSB GPU compute cost to about $66.
Context
StarkWare mined the first quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction on August 26. It cost about $320 in GPU compute. A developer challenge then reduced estimated compute costs and may lead to further tests or another mined transaction.
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