Researcher Claims 1 Bitcoin Bounty for Achieving the Largest Quantum Attack to Date

The threat of quantum attacks on bitcoin's underlying technology has become more tangible, following a recent breakthrough by independent researcher Giancarlo Lelli. Project Eleven awarded Lelli a 1 bitcoin prize, valued at approximately $78,000, for breaking a 15-bit elliptic curve key on publicly accessible quantum hardware. This achievement marks a significant milestone, as it represents the largest public demonstration of its kind to date, exceeding the previous record by a factor of 512. Elliptic curve cryptography is a crucial component of bitcoin's security, enabling wallets to prove ownership of funds without revealing their private keys. However, quantum computers running Shor's algorithm pose a challenge to this security, as they can potentially derive private keys from public ones. Lelli's achievement does not mean that bitcoin is on the verge of being compromised, as it uses 256-bit elliptic curve security, which is significantly more secure than the 15-bit key that was broken. Nevertheless, this breakthrough highlights the rapidly evolving landscape of quantum attacks and the need for the bitcoin community to develop and implement quantum-safe solutions. The previous public break was a 6-bit demonstration by Steve Tippeconnic in September 2025, using IBM's 133-qubit quantum computer. Lelli's result expanded that by a factor of 512 in just seven months, underscoring the accelerating pace of progress in this field. Theoretical estimates suggest that the resource requirements for a full 256-bit attack are decreasing rapidly, with a recent Google Research paper putting the cost below 500,000 physical qubits. This has significant implications for wallets with publicly visible addresses, which could be vulnerable to quantum attacks. Project Eleven estimates that approximately 6.9 million bitcoin are stored in such wallets, including those belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto. In response to this threat, bitcoin developers have proposed migration paths, including BIP-360, which would introduce quantum-safe address types. Other blockchain platforms, such as Ethereum, Tron, StarkWare, and Ripple, have also published post-quantum transition plans. While the 15-bit breakthrough is still far from the 256-bit security used by bitcoin, it represents an important step in the rapidly evolving field of quantum attacks and highlights the need for continued research and development of quantum-safe solutions.