Vitalik Buterin Opens Devcon 8 in Costume, Warns AI Could Crack Crypto

Vitalik Buterin fears AI could race through 50 years of math in five and break the cryptography securing Ethereum and Bitcoin. The Ethereum co-founder posted the concern on X the day he opened Devcon 8 in a smiley mask. Quantum computers have long been the threat the industry plans for. However, his worry also covers lattice-based methods, the math behind several leading post-quantum standards. ETH and BTC holders could therefore face a risk that the planned quantum fixes may not fully remove. What Could Break Crypto Before Quantum Does Responding to a user who guessed at his reasoning, Buterin pointed to algorithms that may exist but remain undiscovered. His main example was the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem (ECDLP), the math that protects private keys on both networks.

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