ECDSA.Fail: Open Autoresearch for Optimizing Elliptic-Curve Point Addition in Shor's Algorithm
Optimizing quantum algorithms could greatly enhance the security and efficiency of technologies that use elliptic-curve cryptography, which underpins many digital security...
Participants reduced S by 86.1%.
Why this matters
Optimizing quantum algorithms could greatly enhance the security and efficiency of technologies that use elliptic-curve cryptography, which underpins many digital security systems. This research demonstrates collaboration between humans and AI to push the boundaries of what's currently possible in quantum computing.
What they actually achieved
The ECDSA.Fail initiative reduced the spacetime-inspired score for secp256k1 point-addition circuits by 86.1%. The best circuit uses 1,151 qubits and 1,299,453 average executed Toffoli gates, which is significantly below Google's published thresholds.
What they did not achieve
Despite the improvements, the circuits do not yet represent a full end-to-end implementation of Shor's algorithm that was empirically validated. Various differences in interfaces and conventions preclude formal claims of performance dominance over existing benchmarks.
How we scored this
| Points | Signal | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| -2 | Reports logical, not physical, qubits | The benchmark minimizes the spacetime-inspired score S=Q×T, where Q is peak logical qubit width. |
| -2 | Medium hype | |
Sources
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ECDSA.Fail: Open Autoresearch for Optimizing Elliptic-Curve Point Addition in Shor's Algorithm
arXiv quant-ph - 9 Sep 2026- primary