Safe

Quantum

Bitcoin

would

A Bitcoin researcher has come up with a way that could immediately make Bitcoin transactions quantum-safe without the need for a soft fork.&nbsp;
In a proposal published Thursday, StarkWare chief product officer Avihu Levy proposed a Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) transaction scheme that he <a href="https://github.com/avihu28/Quantum-Safe-Bitcoin-Transactions/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">said</a> would remain secure “even against an adversary with a large-scale quantum computer running Shor’s algorithm.”&nbsp;
He added that the plan requires no changes to the Bitcoin protocol and operates entirely within the existing legacy script constraints. The downside is that it is costly and likely is not useful for everyday transactions, he said.&nbsp;
The Bitcoin community has been split on how to tackle the quantum problem. QSB presents a temporary solution while a long-term approach is ironed out.
The plan’s main feature is replacing the proof-of-work signature-size puzzle with a hash-to-sig puzzle.
Instead of relying on elliptic curve math that <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/caltech-researchers-theorize-quantum-computers-could-be-operational-before-2030" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">quantum computers can break</a>, the spender must find an input whose hash output randomly happens to resemble a valid ECDSA (elliptic curve digital signature algorithm) signature, requiring brute-force work that even a quantum computer cannot shortcut.
<figure><img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2026-04/019d7574-3ccf-7771-8db1-30b8d74621d8.jpg" alt="Bitcoin can be made quantum-safe without protocol upgrade: Researcher">
 <figcaption>Far more computing power is required for QSB. Source:<a href="https://github.com/avihu28/Quantum-Safe-Bitcoin-Transactions/blob/main/paper/QSB.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">GitHub</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
<h2 id="quantum-safe-bitcoin-not-practical-for-everyday-use">Quantum Safe Bitcoin not practical for everyday use</h2>
The proposal comes with caveats. It costs the sender between $75 and $150 per transaction in GPU compute and is more complex than a typical Bitcoin transaction, and thus would only make sense for securing large BTC transactions.&nbsp;
Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-quantum-challenges-more-social-than-technical-grayscale" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Bitcoin’s quantum challenges are ‘more social than technical’: Grayscale</a>
“This is huge,” <a href="https://x.com/elibensasson/status/2042304531132715035" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">said</a> StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson, claiming that it essentially makes Bitcoin quantum-safe today.&nbsp;
Still, Bitcoin ESG specialist Daniel Batten <a href="https://x.com/DSBatten/status/2042331765184844191" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">said</a> it was “an overstatement” because exposed public keys and dormant wallets are “not addressed in the paper.”
Batten was referring to an estimated 1.7 million BTC locked in early P2PK addresses that could be cracked by a quantum computer.&nbsp;
Its existence has led to <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-quantum-rigidity-becomes-ethereum-s-biggest-bull-case-nic-carter" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">fierce debate</a> about what to do with the dormant coins, with the community split between leaving Bitcoin as-is to preserve its core ethos, freezing or burning the vulnerable coins entirely or upgrading the protocol to support quantum-safe signatures.
<h2 id="protocol-changes-are-the-preferred-solution">Protocol changes are the preferred solution</h2>
The researchers acknowledged that this is a last-resort measure as transactions are non-standard, costs don’t scale to all users and use cases like Lightning Network are not covered.
They concluded that protocol-level changes remain the preferred long-term path.
<blockquote>
 “While this article describes a solution that works today for quantum-safe Bitcoin transactions, it should be treated as a last-resort measure.”&nbsp;
</blockquote>
Google <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/quantum-computers-need-far-less-power-crack-crypto-says-google" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">published a paper</a> in March that unsettled the Bitcoin community as it suggested that a quantum computer could potentially crack Bitcoin’s cryptography using far fewer resources than previously thought.
Meanwhile, Lightning Labs chief technology officer Olaoluwa Osuntokun on Wednesday <a href="https://x.com/roasbeef/status/2041940571720487192" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">published</a> a quantum “escape hatch” prototype that enables users to prove Bitcoin wallet ownership from the original seed phrase without revealing it, which could serve as an alternative Bitcoin authorization method.
Magazine: <a href="https://cointelegraph-magazine.com/dirty-secret-quantum-signatures-no-one-knows/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Nobody knows if quantum secure cryptography will even work</a>

Bitcoin can be made quantum-safe without protocol upgrade: Researcher

Table of Contents

Cointelegraph

Other articles published on Apr 10, 2026

Join our free newsletter for daily crypto updates!