StarkWare announced today that it has completed the first quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction.
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.
During this brief window, it reveals the mathematical material that could give a future quantum computer an opportunity to forge a signature and steal the funds.
