News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily News: Researchers from institutions including the Ethereum Foundation, Theta Labs, and StarkWare have jointly published a paper, using AI coding agents to deeply optimize the core operations of Shor's algorithm. The computing resources required for a potential quantum attack on Bitcoin and Ethereum (secp256k1 cryptographic system) have been reduced by more than 50% compared to Google's benchmark in March of this year. The number of logical qubits required for the circuit has been compressed to 1,151, and later versions have even been reduced to 813. Although current quantum hardware still cannot directly break public chains, the research shows that pure algorithmic optimization is significantly narrowing the time window for the quantum threat. The researchers emphasize that quantum-resistant upgrades take a long time and cannot be applied retroactively, and the industry needs to prepare defenses in advance. (Coindesk)
According to The Block, StarkWare announced it has successfully executed the first post-quantum Bitcoin transaction. Avihu Levy, Head of Applications, used a "signature grinding" approach to repeatedly generate millions of candidate signatures before the transaction entered the Bitcoin mempool, thereby avoiding the exposure of mathematical data related to public keys that could be exploited by future quantum computers to forge signatures. This method incurs significant computational costs, with a single transaction potentially taking several hours. Because the transaction format is unrecognized by standard Bitcoin nodes, it bypassed the public mempool and was submitted directly to miners for inclusion via MARA’s Slipstream service. StarkWare noted that while this technique can serve as a transitional safeguard, Bitcoin will still require protocol-level upgrades or a hard fork to systematically mitigate quantum computing threats.
Odaily News: Starknet announced the completion of a quantum-resistant signature transfer test. A wallet account using quantum-resistant signature mechanisms completed a real transfer on the Starknet mainnet, with transaction fees of approximately 6 US cents, and the transaction can be queried via a block explorer. This account is currently an experimental, unaudited version intended primarily for research and testing.StarkWare stated that this transfer was made possible by Starknet's account model design. Unlike most blockchains that fix the signature algorithm at the protocol layer, each Starknet account is a smart contract that can autonomously define which signature schemes it accepts. As a result, users can upgrade their wallets from traditional elliptic curve signatures to quantum-resistant signatures without a hard fork, without migrating assets, and without changing their addresses.StarkWare pointed out that most blockchains face quantum computing risks because both wallet signatures and the underlying verification systems rely on elliptic curve cryptography. Once large-scale quantum computers emerge, running Shor's algorithm could break the associated cryptographic systems. Currently, the Starknet ecosystem already supports a quantum-resistant signature scheme based on Falcon-512, which is part of the NIST post-quantum cryptography standardization framework. The relevant implementation has been advanced by ecosystem teams and organizations such as OpenZeppelin.
zero-knowledge scaling company StarkWare has released a Starknet quantum resistance roadmap, stating that the roadmap is divided into three phases to address the risk of future quantum computing attacks. StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson stated that Starknet can leverage its architectural advantages to achieve quantum resistance, as its underlying cryptography is based on zero-knowledge STARK proofs. According to reports, the first phase of the roadmap includes replacing part of the existing secure mathematical mechanism, Pedersen hash, with a quantum-resistant version, and adding quantum-resistant signatures; the second phase focuses on migration tools, upgrading existing smart contracts without requiring developers to manually rebuild applications; the third phase involves dependencies that Starknet cannot solve alone, primarily relying on Ethereum's quantum upgrade roadmap. Circle, Ethereum, Solana, Tezos, and Algorand have all proposed quantum resistance roadmaps. (Cointelegraph)
Odaily Planet Daily reported that Starknet, the Ethereum Layer 2 network developed by StarkWare, has officially launched strkBTC. This is a new Bitcoin-based asset designed to achieve private balances and anonymous transfers through zero-knowledge proof (ZK) technology while maintaining composability with DeFi applications. After its launch, strkBTC supports "re-anonymization," allowing assets to be bridged back to entirely new, unlinked Bitcoin addresses, and also provides compliance audit and asset screening features. (The Block)
According to The Block, Avihu Levy, a researcher at StarkWare, published a paper proposing the Quantum Safe Bitcoin (QSB) scheme, claiming it enables quantum-resistant transactions under Bitcoin’s existing script rules—without requiring a soft fork. This scheme replaces elliptic-curve cryptography with the RIPEMD-160 hash function via a “hash-to-signature” puzzle, thereby enhancing resilience against quantum attacks. The paper notes that QSB’s current per-transaction cost ranges from $75 to $150—significantly higher than today’s average transaction fee—and involves complex user experience; thus, it is recommended only as a “last resort.” The scheme remains constrained by script opcodes and size limits, and does not yet support all use cases—such as the Lightning Network. Compared to BIP-360—which requires protocol-level changes—QSB needs no modifications to the Bitcoin protocol, but remains experimental.