Justin Drake urges crypto ‘bunker mode,’ as AI could break wallet security within months

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has backed a new warning that advances in artificial intelligence could undermine the cryptography used in today’s blockchains before quantum computers do. 

Buterin was responding to a post from Ethereum researcher Justin Drake on Wednesday urging the industry to prepare for “bunker mode,” as AI could eventually make it possible to break the elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA) used to secure cryptocurrency wallets. Drake said users should begin a gradual migration of funds to fresh wallets where their public key is not exposed.

“I don’t recommend anyone scramble to move their funds to new wallets today,” Buterin wrote. “But we should take the risks to cryptography from AI-accelerated math seriously.”

Drake said his concerns came after OpenAI released hundreds of new mathematical findings across a variety of topics such as algebra, theoretical computer science and mathematical logic on Tuesday, revealing how quickly AI has been advancing in mathematics. 

Last month the company used a team of 10,000 autonomous AI agents working in parallel to solve the Navier-Stokes equation, one of the most famous and difficult unsolved problems in mathematics and physics, in just 88 hours. 

“Recent days have been humbling for human mathematical intuition. Long-held, unquestioned hypotheses have fallen,” said Drake, adding that elliptic curves could be especially vulnerable to superintelligence. 

“Curves carry rich structure, with room for fancy tricks like Schoof, Frobenius, pairings. (By contrast, hashes are designed to minimize algebraic structure.)” he said. 

Buterin flags risks to quantum-resistant cryptography

Buterin, however, extended the concern to lattice-based cryptography, warning that systems believed to resist quantum attacks could also be weakened by AI-driven mathematical advances.

“So far most people have been in the mode of thinking ‘elliptic curves broken, hashes safe, lattices safe,’” he wrote. “But there is a good chance that the concrete security of lattices will take serious hits from the next two years of AI math.”

Buterin said this is a major reason why Ethereum’s lean roadmap has been going in the “hash-only” direction. 

Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi also supported taking precautions, describing Drake’s warning as “a very sober call.”

“The risk is not quantum, but just conventional mathematics overturning unproven cryptographic hardness assumptions,” he wrote on X.

Controlled migration to fresh addresses 

Alongside those longer-term cryptographic changes, both researchers suggested holders could reduce their exposure by keeping funds in addresses whose public keys have not been revealed.

“My personal recommendation is to set in motion a controlled mass migration of assets to fresh addresses,” said Drake.

He said large and sophisticated crypto holders should be the first to move their funds to new addresses. He also recommended moving any remaining funds to a new address after signing a transaction.

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Buterin supported the precaution if it is straightforward to carry out. “If it’s not difficult for you, keeping your funds in addresses which have not yet been used to make a transaction is a good idea,” he wrote.

He cautioned, however, that moving funds introduces risks of its own.

“I personally have lost more money in botched migrations than I have lost in all hacks combined,” Buterin said.

Drake similarly stressed that any migration should be gradual and carefully managed, warning that “a rushed migration would do more harm than good.”

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