Starknet cuts quantum-safe Falcon-512 check cost 46.5% to $0.023
A Starknet challenge cut the gas needed to verify post-quantum Falcon-512 signatures by 46.5%, to an estimated $0.023 per check, TokenPost reported Oct. 29.
LAYER 2BLOCKCHAINNEWS
Sofia Marchetti
10/29/20261 min read
A public optimization challenge run by StarkWare and the Starknet Foundation has cut the cost of verifying Falcon-512 post-quantum signatures on Starknet by 46.5%, to an estimated $0.023 per verification, TokenPost reported on Oct. 29.
Falcon-512 is a lattice-based signature scheme designed to withstand attacks by future quantum computers. The challenge's opening baseline used 48,398,466 gas. After a baseline run on Oct. 18, participants posted 22 successive records, and the current best averages about 25.9 million gas. An earlier record had reached 27,915,721 gas.
Entries are scored on mean Sierra gas use across 27 held-out signatures. To qualify, an implementation must keep Falcon-512's parameters and SHAKE-256 hashing, accept valid signatures, reject malformed or tampered ones and pass checks against previously found breaks. According to Coinfomania, AI agents played a significant role in the competition.
Not yet audited
The figures carry caveats. The $0.023 is an approximate conversion based on Starknet gas prices and covers signature verification only, not a full transaction fee. Neither the baseline nor the record code has been audited, and OpenZeppelin has not reviewed or endorsed the results. An earlier experimental Falcon-512 transfer on Starknet mainnet, made from an unaudited account, cost about $0.06, though that figure covered a whole transfer and is not directly comparable.
The work feeds a wider quantum debate on Starknet. In a non-binding vote that closed on Oct. 22, 93.52% of voting power across 3,236 votes backed research into moving Starknet from an Ethereum layer 2 toward a post-quantum layer 1. A draft whitepaper is due in November, and Starknet chief Eli Ben-Sasson has named 2027 as the target for quantum safety.
Cheaper verification matters because it could allow quantum-resistant accounts to be built as smart contracts without a network-wide upgrade. Any production use would still depend on independent audits.
Source: TokenPost, Coinfomania, CryptoTicker