Starknet said StarkWare researchers verified a quantum-safe locking mechanism on Bitcoin mainnet that does not require a soft fork, new opcodes, or consensus-rule changes. According to NS3.AI, the first Quantum-Safe Bitcoin output was spent on August 26, 2026, in block 964,199.

The associated GPU computation cost fell from approximately $320 to about $50. StarkWare said the Quantum-Safe Bitcoin approach is still not suitable for large-scale use because each transaction requires substantial computation and has other limitations.

StarkWare described the mechanism as an emergency research solution and said a long-term fix would still require post-quantum signatures through a soft fork.