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Project Eleven has launched the QDay Prize, an open competition offering one Bitcoin, currently valued around $84,000 to $85,000, to anyone who can break elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) using Shor’s algorithm on a quantum computer. This initiative aims to evaluate the proximity of quantum computing to undermining ECC, a widely used encryption scheme. Participants must demonstrate the ability to break ECC using Shor's algorithm, without classical shortcuts or hybrid methods and submissions must include gate-level code and system specifications, all made publicly available for transparency.
The competition is structured around progressively larger ECC key sizes, starting from 1-bit keys, with an emphasis on demonstrating generalizable techniques that can scale to full cryptographic key lengths. The challenge, running until April 5, 2026, seeks to rigorously benchmark the real-world quantum threat to Bitcoin’s core security system. Project Eleven emphasizes that even successful attacks on small keys would be significant milestones, offering valuable insights into the security risks in modern cryptographic systems.
Participants can use publicly accessible quantum hardware or private systems, and are expected to handle error-prone qubit environments realistically, given current hardware fidelities. Breaking even a few bits of a private key would be considered a significant achievement, according to Project Eleven. The QDay Prize hopes to establish a verifiable and open marker of when practical quantum attacks against widely used encryption systems may emerge, highlighting the urgency of understanding how close current technologies are to threatening ECC security.
References :
- thequantuminsider.com: Quantum Contest Offers 1 Bitcoin for Cracking Encryption With Shor’s Algorithm
- Bitcoin News: Project Eleven believes this would be an extremely hard task, and achieving even a few bits of a private key would be big news.
- Quantum Computing Report: Project Eleven (P11) has announced the QDay Prize, an open competition offering a reward of one Bitcoin (current value about $85,000) for demonstrating the ability to break elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) using Shor’s algorithm on a quantum computer.
- quantumcomputingreport.com: Project Eleven’s QDay Prize Offers 1 Bitcoin for Breaking Elliptic Curve Cryptography Using Shor’s Algorithm
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