First quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction successfully executed, StarkWare confirms

Summary

This development counters the idea that a network fork is the only way to secure bitcoin holdings against quantum computing risks, the company said. Avihu Levy, the head of StarkWare's applications division, has devised a method that adds an "extra lock" to protect holdings by using signature grinding to prevent use of public key data while transactions sit in the Bitcoin mempool. A Bitcoin transaction is exposed to quantum attacks when it waits in the mempool before it is confirmed. StarkWare says signature grinding closes that window by refusing to accept the first valid signature and instead brute-forcing millions of candidates until one has a shape that does not expose the public key material to quantum computers.