Bitcoin May Already be Resistant to Quantum Computing Attacks

A researcher at the Israeli cryptography company StarkWare has successfully completed the first quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction, preemptively protecting it from any future attacks using hypothetical quantum computers. Crucially, this didn't require a soft-fork or any other change to the network's consensus system. It just slotted right into the main ledger with additional security.

The problem of quantum computing on proof-of-work systems like Bitcoin has long been understood. While current computers would need an impossible amount of computing hardware to brute-force a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, quantum computers could offer that power at a fraction of the cost. Protecting Bitcoin against this potential future is the subject of an ongoing debate, and no effective long-term solution has been agreed upon.

But right now, Bitcoin stored in many wallets with public-facing addresses is vulnerable. Gizmodo's sources estimate that around 30% of the current Bitcoin supply is vulnerable to quantum computing attacks, potentially putting half a trillion dollars of crypto up for grabs to future attackers who get hold of this kind of hardware.

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In an example of how users might protect against that right now, the StarkWare researchers used a Quantum-Safe Bitcoin, or QSB, system. It uses a different cryptographic system from most Bitcoin transactions, built around hashing. Adding this secondary quantum-resistant lock makes it take much more quantum computing power to break it.