Starknet challenge drives quantum-safe signature checks down to about $0.023

An open optimization contest backed by StarkWare and the Starknet Foundation roughly halved the gas cost of verifying Falcon-512 signatures Quantum-safe transactions on Starknet now cost about $0.023 per verification. That’s the result of an open challenge where people and AI agents compete to make post-quantum signatures cheaper. Within weeks, they cut the gas bill for verifying a Falcon-512 signature roughly in half. How a coding contest halved the bill The challenge targets Falcon-512, a post-quantum signature scheme. The contest asks a narrow question: how cheaply can a Falcon-512 signature be verified inside Starknet’s Cairo-based environment? The starting line came from OpenZeppelin, which supplied the initial verifier. That baseline implementation consumed 48.4 million gas per verification. The current leading implementation sits at approximately 25.9 million gas. That is close to a 2x improvement, or nearly 50% less work for the network. Translated into money, the record works out to about $0.023 per verification at recent STRK token prices. The figure depends on the token, so it will shift as STRK moves. The challenge launched around October 18, 2026, as a joint effort bet...