Project Eleven Launches Q-Day Prize, Offering 1 BTC to the First Team to Break Bitcoin's Cryptography Using a Quantum Computer

Project Eleven, a quantum computing research and advocacy firm, has launched the Q-Day Prize, a global competition offering 1 bitcoin (BTC) to the first team able to break an elliptic curve cryptographic (ECC) key, the cryptography which secures the Bitcoin network, using Shor’s algorithm

A quantum computing research and advocacy firm, Project Eleven, has announced the Q-Day Prize, a global competition offering 1 bitcoin (BTC) to the first team to break an elliptic curve cryptographic (ECC) key using Shor's algorithm on a quantum computer.

The firm launched the competition on April 5, 2023, and teams have five years to complete the task, with the deadline set for April 5, 2028.

The firm is also highlighting the potential threat posed by quantum computers to the Bitcoin network, with Project Eleven calculating that more than 10 million bitcoin addresses have non-zero balances and are potentially at risk of quantum attacks.

"We just launched the Q-Day Prize. 1 BTC to the first team to break a toy version of Bitcoin’s cryptography using a quantum computer," the firm said.

"After 5+ years of research, we can now break a toy version of Bitcoin’s cryptography using a quantum computer. But to do so, we need to use elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), which is different from the cryptography used in Bitcoin today."

Project Eleven said that to make the competition a "level playing field," it had created a "toy version" of Bitcoin’s cryptography using ECC, adding that the goal was to break the ECC key and recover the private key for an address on a testnet.

"We will provide a copy of the quantum algorithm used to break the key, and we will donate 1 BTC to the first team to succeed."

The firm's research and advocacy efforts are focused on raising awareness of the potential impact of quantum computing, which has the potential to revolutionize various industries.

Project Eleven said that quantum computers could pose a threat to blockchain networks if they become powerful enough to break the cryptographic algorithms used to secure them.

"We believe that it is important to continue to research and develop quantum computing technologies, but we also believe that we need to be aware of the potential risks involved," the firm said.

"We are grateful to the members of the Bitcoin community who have contributed to this discussion and who are working to develop solutions to the challenges posed by quantum computing."

The Bitcoin community is aware of the quantum computing threat and is working on solutions.

A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP), titled Quantum-Resistant Address Migration Protocol (QRAMP), was introduced earlier this year, which suggests enforcing a network-wide migration to post-quantum cryptography to safeguard Bitcoin wallets. This would require a hard fork, however, and getting that sort of consensus would be an uphill battle.

Quantum startup BTQ has also proposed its own solution: a quantum-based alternative to Bitcoin's Proof of Work called Coarse-Grained Boson Sampling (CGBS).

CGBS works by using quantum computing to generate unique patterns of photons (light particles called bosons), replacing traditional mining puzzles with quantum-based sampling tasks for validation. But this also requires a hard fork, and the appetite for such a change isn't yet known.