Drake urges crypto 'bunker mode'; Buterin backs AI math risk

Ethereum researcher Justin Drake has told the crypto industry to prepare for 'bunker mode,' arguing that AI-accelerated mathematics could break the elliptic curve signatures guarding most crypto wallets before quantum computers get the chance. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin publicly agreed the risk is real, while warning holders not to rush.

In a thread covered by Cointelegraph, Drake recommended 'a controlled mass migration of assets to fresh addresses,' with sophisticated holders moving first. He pointed to the specific brittleness of curves versus hashes: 'Curves carry rich structure, with room for fancy tricks like Schoof, Frobenius, pairings. (By contrast, hashes are designed to minimize algebraic structure.)'

Buterin agreed on direction but not urgency. 'But we should take the risks to cryptography from AI-accelerated math seriously,' he wrote, before adding, 'I don't recommend anyone scramble to move their funds to new wallets today.' He also went further than Drake in one respect, warning that the lattice-based schemes the industry has been treating as the quantum-safe fallback may themselves be shaky, saying 'the concrete security of lattices will take serious hits from the next two years of AI math.'

The case for restraint is the cost of panic. 'I personally have lost more money in botched migrations than I have lost in all hacks combined,' Buterin wrote, suggesting instead that holders who can do so safely keep funds in addresses which have not yet been used to make a transaction.

The alarm is set against a run of AI math results. Cointelegraph notes OpenAI released hundreds of mathematical findings last month and previously described using 10,000 AI agents to tackle the Navier-Stokes equation in 88 hours. The exchange adds to the steady stream of AI safety coverage we've been tracking in recent weeks.