Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Test Cuts GPU Cost Estimate To $66
StarkWare contest data lowered the estimated GPU cost of preparing a quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction from about $320 to $66, though the result remains a computation estimate rather than a second mined transaction.
A quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction method now carries an estimated $66 GPU preparation cost, down from about $320 after a week of AI-assisted code optimization, CoinDesk reported from StarkWare's research and contest data.
The drop matters because the technique is not a normal wallet upgrade or a cheaper mining fee.
It is a computation-heavy way to prepare a transaction that could protect eligible bitcoin if a sufficiently powerful quantum computer threatens wallets whose public keys have already been exposed.
Bitcoin already carried one demonstration of the method in August, and that run supplied the higher $320 baseline.
Before the transaction could be sent to the network, the preparation work consumed about 3,100 GPU-hours spread over roughly 100 graphics processors.
The figure excluded the separate fee for recording the transaction on the blockchain.
The next step was a StarkWare-run optimization contest around the same code.
Entrants used conventional work and AI coding tools to improve how quickly the software could test possible answers.
On the contest benchmark, the top entry reached about 881 million checks per second on the graphics processor, while the original version managed roughly 146 million.
Those figures explain why the headline cost fell so quickly.
The improved search rate reduces how much GPU time is needed before a protected transaction can be assembled.
The method still depends on doing substantial computation outside Bitcoin, but the experiment moved the estimate from an expensive emergency procedure toward a less prohibitive fallback.
The protection mechanism targets one specific risk.
If a future quantum computer could derive a private key from an exposed public key, coins at affected addresses could be stolen.
StarkWare's approach adds hash-based protection that is expected to withstand that attack, and the test fit within Bitcoin's existing rules rather than requiring a network upgrade.
There are important limits to the result.
The $66 figure is an estimate from a computation test, not proof from another transaction mined on Bitcoin.
CoinDesk's calculation using the contest speedups and the original $320 breakdown produced about $83, while the contest site later listed record-setting code near $60 and a round-number estimate near $66.
That leaves the work as a measured improvement rather than a finished migration plan.
The experiment shows that AI-assisted optimization can reduce the cost of a quantum-resistant Bitcoin fallback, but broad use would still depend on the threat arriving, eligible coins needing protection and the community deciding whether a wider fix is necessary.
