Researcher Claims 1 Bitcoin Bounty for Achieving Largest Quantum Attack on Underlying Technology

The perceived threat of quantum attacks to Bitcoin's security has become more tangible. Quantum security startup Project Eleven awarded a 1 bitcoin bounty, valued at approximately $78,000, to independent researcher Giancarlo Lelli for breaking a 15-bit elliptic curve key on publicly accessible quantum hardware. This achievement marks the largest public demonstration of its kind, posing a potential threat to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other major blockchains. Elliptic curve cryptography, which enables crypto wallets to verify fund ownership without revealing private keys, is being challenged by quantum computers utilizing Shor's algorithm. Although Lelli's breakthrough is significant, it does not imply that Bitcoin is on the verge of being compromised, as it uses 256-bit elliptic curve security. The experiment aimed to assess the feasibility of quantum attacks on real-world cryptography-based products. The previous public break was a 6-bit demonstration, and Lelli's result represents a substantial 512-fold increase in just seven months. Theoretical estimates suggest that the resource requirements for such attacks are decreasing rapidly, with a Google Research paper estimating the cost of a full 256-bit attack to be below 500,000 physical qubits. Project Eleven's CEO, Alex Pruden, noted that the winning submission came from an independent researcher using cloud-accessible hardware, highlighting the growing accessibility of quantum computing. The concern is most pressing for wallets with publicly visible keys, with approximately 6.9 million bitcoin, or one-third of the total supply, potentially vulnerable to quantum attacks. To address this, Bitcoin developers have proposed migration plans, including the introduction of quantum-safe address types.