Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin issued a warning about AI, stating that this technology could break the cryptography protecting Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The Russian author doesn’t refer to an immediate danger, but does recommend being careful with exposure to the most vulnerable cryptography.

The warning was issued on October 7th, when Buterin responded to Drake, who has been “asking the industry to prepare for what he calls a ‘bunker mode’ for some time.” The conversation revolved around two areas: “lattices, a type of mathematical problem that underpins post-quantum signatures, and the signature algorithm used by virtually all cryptocurrency wallets.”

Without delving into the mathematical complexity, the discussion focused on analyzing “the mechanism that transforms a private key into a verifiable signature without revealing it, and which underlies every Bitcoin or Ether transfer. Anyone who could break it could sign transactions on behalf of another.”

According to Buterin, the industry assumes that elliptic curves will fall to quantum computers and that hash functions — which combine data into a fixed-length code without an exploitable pattern — and lattices will endure. His doubt lies in this second point.

The Ethereum co-founder advises digital asset holders against moving their funds to new wallets for now and warned against taking seriously the risks that AI poses to cryptography.

Buterin’s fear stems from a debate that is not recent, but rather dates back several years, during which the question of “what will happen when a quantum computer can break public-key cryptography” has been discussed. The novelty lies in the risk factor: it is not quantum computing, but artificial intelligence applied to mathematics.

M.Pino

Source: merca2

(Reference image source: Pierre Borthiry – Peiobty on Unsplash)

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