Bitcoin network processes first quantum-resistant transaction

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Eugene Komchuk

27.08.2026

Bitcoin network processes first quantum-resistant transaction — Bitcoin could be protected from quantum computers

StarkWare has announced the completion of the first Bitcoin transaction designed to resist potential attacks using quantum computers. The company says the method shows that protecting BTC from the quantum threat does not necessarily require an immediate network fork.

The solution was developed by Avihu Levy, head of StarkWare’s applications division. His method adds an extra layer of protection to a transaction and prevents attackers from exploiting public-key data while the transfer is waiting for confirmation in the mempool.

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The risk emerges precisely at this stage. Once a transaction is broadcast to the network, certain data becomes publicly available that a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could theoretically use in the future to forge a signature and steal funds.

To protect against this, StarkWare used a technique known as signature grinding. Instead of accepting the first valid signature, the system generates millions of variants until it finds one that does not expose the data required for a quantum attack.

The approach has a major drawback: it requires significant computing resources. According to StarkWare, producing a single such transaction can take several hours.

In addition, standard Bitcoin nodes currently do not relay transactions in this unusual format. As a result, the transaction could not be sent through the regular public mempool and instead had to be submitted directly to a miner willing to process it.

The StarkWare transaction was ultimately included in a block by Bitcoin mining company MARA through its Slipstream service.

Temporary protection, not a permanent solution

Despite the experiment, Levy still believes that full protection against quantum computers should eventually be implemented at the Bitcoin protocol level. StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson shares this view.

According to him, the new technology could serve as a temporary measure until the community introduces the necessary network upgrade.

Ben-Sasson compared the current situation to passengers on the Titanic. He said Levy’s development shows that Bitcoin already has a kind of “lifeboat,” but that this is not a reason to delay building permanent protection against the quantum threat.

Why Bitcoin needs protection from quantum computers

Quantum computers do not currently pose an immediate threat to Bitcoin, but in the future they could undermine the cryptography used by the network. The main concern is digital signatures, which prove that a holder has the right to spend their coins.

If quantum systems become powerful enough, they could theoretically derive private keys from publicly available data and forge signatures. In that scenario, an attacker could attempt to intercept funds after a transaction is broadcast or target addresses whose public keys have already been exposed.

This is why developers are already looking for ways to make Bitcoin resistant to such attacks. The sooner practical solutions emerge, the more time the network will have for a gradual transition without the risk of rushed and controversial protocol changes.

Galaxy, meanwhile, has been among the companies most actively pushing to protect Bitcoin from the threat posed by quantum computers.

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