Project 11 has launched a competition where people can win
1 BTC if they break Bitcoin’s Elliptic Curve cryptography and an ECC key using a quantum computer with Shor’s algorithm. The aim is to break the biggest ECC key possible.
According to them, 6 million BTC in over 10 million addresses are possibly vulnerable to quantum computers because of their exposed public keys. That's a value of over $500 billion. The aim of the initiative is to test how serious of a threat quantum computers present.
Project 11 believes that quantum computers will break Bitcoin's 256-bit keys sooner or later. Participants don't have to go that far. The company believes that breaking a 5-bit key is already a significant breakthrough.
Competition Rules:
- Individuals and teams can sign up. No institutional affiliation is needed.
- Participants need to find out how to run Shor's algorithm on current quantum hardware and demonstrate scaling capabilities to 256-bit keys.
- Project 11 has prepared sets of ECC keys from 1 to 25 bits of security. Participants will need to target these key lengths and demonstrate that their methods can crack the provided x-bit key.
- Submit your entries. Participants can include the code, instructions used with the quantum program, a description of their approach, techniques used, and the specs of the used quantum computer.
The deadline to make the submissions is
5 April 2026. All submissions will be shared publicly.
Those interested in participating can sign up here:
https://www.qdayprize.org/registerWhat do you think, what key length will these white hats be able to crack?
Sources and further reading:
https://www.qdayprize.org/https://x.com/qdayclock/status/1912534686569755044There are hundreds of dormant addresses, where the owners either lost their wallet password or died. The trick is to call the idiots to break these addresses using QC so that the same idiot can earn 1 BTC, while they get the biggest slice of the pie! Only brainless idiots get into this game.