AI Coding Slashes Quantum-Safe Bitcoin Transaction Cost to $66

quantum-safe Bitcoin transaction — AI-assisted coding has dramatically reduced the estimated cost of preparing a quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction, cutting the GPU computing expense from $320 to about $66 in one week, according to research from StarkWare.

The improvement stems from a contest where participants used AI tools to make the underlying computational search process roughly five times faster. This method is designed as a potential emergency measure, allowing eligible Bitcoin holders to move funds if quantum computers ever threaten exposed public keys before the network implements a broader, permanent cryptographic fix.

Notably, this approach does not require a Bitcoin protocol upgrade. However, the $66 cost estimate has not yet been validated in another transaction successfully mined on the Bitcoin blockchain. The technique also has limitations, requiring users to send transactions directly to miners and offering no protection for coins whose public keys are already visible on-chain.