Cost Falls From $320 to $66 After Open Coding Contest StarkWare has reported a sharp drop in the estimated cost of preparing a quantum-safe $BTC transaction, with the figure falling to approx
StarkWare has reported a sharp drop in the estimated cost of preparing a quantum-safe $BTC transaction, with the figure falling to approximately $66 from around $320 in August. That represents a 79% reduction, achieved in roughly one week through an open optimization contest.
The reduction was driven by the Quantum-Safe Bitcoin (QSB) Optimization Challenge, launched on September 16 by StarkWare, Yukon Research, and Eigen Labs. The competition produced 62 accepted improvements across two computational tasks required to build a QSB transaction. Many submissions were built with AI coding tools. Developers using AI models, including Opus 5, Fable 5.1 and GPT-6 Astra, sped up the GPU search code, pushing pinning from 146.09 million to about 881 million candidates per second.
The original cost benchmark was established in August, when the first quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction was mined on mainnet. On August 26, 2026, the first quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction was mined at block 964,199, submitted through MARA's Slipstream service, requiring roughly 3,100 GPU-hours across about 100 graphics processors. The $320 cost covered only computation, not on-chain fees.
StarkWare researcher Avihu Levy published the QSB design in April 2026. It showed how a Bitcoin transaction could gain hash-based protection against quantum attacks while operating within Bitcoin's existing consensus rules, with no soft fork required. That matters because it means the approach does not need broad network consensus to be deployed.
Still, the $66 figure comes with caveats. The figure remains a benchmark rather than a demonstrated production cost, as it covers GPU computation but excludes Bitcoin network fees. QSB remains an emergency option, not a complete Bitcoin quantum solution, because transactions are nonstandard, require miner submission and protect only coins with unexposed public keys.
StarkWare's co-founder has been clear that the longer-term fix lies elsewhere. Eli Ben-Sasson said: "I still want Bitcoin to choose to do a soft fork and I expect we will get one." For now, QSB functions as a practical fallback for large holders who need an option ahead of any protocol-level change. StarkWare, Yukon Research, and Eigen Labs are addressing this challenge with a $20,000 prize pool for developers and researchers. The challenge remains open, with further cost reductions possible as more submissions are accepted.
Sources:CoinTelegraph: Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Compute Cost Falls 79% to Under $67Unchained: AI-Assisted Developers Cut Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Cost Estimate to $66CoinCodex: Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Transactions Get 79% Cheaper
