Project Eleven, a research firm and defense of quantum computing, has launched the Q-Day Prize, a global competition that offers 1 Bitcoin (BTC) to the first team capable of breaking a cryptographic key of elliptical curve (ECC), the cryptography that ensures the Bitcoin network, using the shor algorithm on a quantum computer.
Shor algorithm is a quantum computing method that takes into account large numbers in their main components, allowing quantum computers to break cryptographic algorithms such as RSA and cryptography of elliptical curve used in bitcoin and other blockchain networks.
We just launched the Q-Day award.
1 BTC to the first team to break a toy version of Bitcoin cryptography using a quantum computer.
Deadline: April 5, 2026
Mission: Protect 6M BTC (more than $ 500b)– Project 11 (@qdayClock) April 16, 2025
The contest occurs when quantum computer advances mean that a viable quantum computer could be just years away. Project Elevent has also identified more than 10 million Bitcoin addresses with balances not zero potentially at risk of quantum attacks.
The Bitcoin community is aware of the threat of quantum computing and is working on solutions.
As Coindesk previously reported, a Bitcoin (BIP) improvement proposal was introduced, entitled Directorates Migration Protocol resistant to quantum quantity (QRAMP), at the beginning of April, which suggests enforcing a migration from the entire network to cryptography after the tanto to the Bitcoin Bitcoins de Salvaguardia. However, this would require a hard bifurcation, and obtaining that type of consensus would be a uphill battle.
Quantum Startup BTQ has also proposed its own solution: an alternative based on Quantum to the Bitcoin work test called thick grain bosons (CGBS).
CGBS works using quantum computing to generate unique patterns of photons (light particles called bosons), replacing traditional mining puzzles with quantum sampling tasks for validation. But this also requires a hard fork, and appetite for such change is not yet known.
