Vitalik Buterin警告：AI可能削弱格密码，建议持有者勿急于行动

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warns: AI mathematics advances may accelerate lattice cryptography crisis

On Wednesday, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin issued a warning that artificial intelligence-driven mathematical research could pose a serious threat to Lattice Cryptography, the current mainstream quantum-resistant alternative, within two years. Despite pointing out the risk, he advised holders not to rush to move money into new wallets.

To ensure lasting security, the lattice key length may need to be expanded tenfold.

Buterin issued a document on the X platform pointing out that most security plans are based on the assumption that elliptic curves will be cracked, but the hash function and lattice structure are expected to remain secure. "However, advances in AI mathematics in the next two years are likely to have a major impact on the actual security of lattice structures." He wrote.

He listed ML-DSA (Modular Learning Error Digital Signature Algorithm), fully homomorphic encryption, and lattice structures as key emerging risk areas. This pressure could cause the ECDSA signature scheme used behind Bitcoin and Ethereum wallets to collapse sooner than expected.

After decades of efforts by human experts, the cost of cracking RSA keys has now been greatly reduced. Butrin questions whether AI robots will soon find similar shortcuts to elliptic curves and lattice structures? If AI can bring about mathematical breakthroughs in two years equivalent to those of the past fifty years, then in order to maintain the same level of security, the size of the key required for the lattice structure must increase significantly. The rule of thumb he proposed was that to ensure long-term security, the key size should be increased by a factor of 10.

Comparison of the current status of the Ethereum roadmap and signature scheme

In the past year, Ethereum's development route has been extremely streamlined, relying only on hashing algorithms, using WOTS (one-time signature) or SPHINCS+ for signature, and no schemes such as ML-DSA or Falcon have been introduced.

According to relevant data, the size of the secp256k1 ECDSA signature is approximately 64 bytes, while the ML-DSA-87 signature finally determined by NIST is as high as approximately 4,627 bytes. The huge size difference highlights the challenges between backward compatibility and security upgrades.

Responding to Justin Drake's "Bunker Model" initiative

Butrin's above remarks are part of a response to Justin Drake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation. Previously, Drake called on the industry to "calmly start planning for the 'Bunker Mode'." He pointed out that ECDSA may have expired before "q-day", the day when quantum computers crack public key cryptography. In the worst case scenario, this time point may be only a few months, not a few years.

Drake's plan is to guide users to move funds to addresses where transactions have never been signed, starting with the largest holder. Such addresses can hide the public key behind the hash value until the first signature occurs.

Buterin only supports the use of new addresses if the switching process is simple. "I don't recommend anyone rushing to move funds into a new wallet today," he made clear. He added that the money he lost in failed migration operations exceeded even the losses caused by all hacking attacks combined.

Regarding the privacy agreement, Buterin recommends keeping encrypted notes offline and sending them through a third party. For multi-signature wallets, off-chain confirmation helps protect the signer's signature from public viewing.

OpenAI releases manuscripts exacerbating industry concerns

Drake's warning was related to OpenAI's release on Tuesday of 722 internally undisclosed model manuscripts, classified into 372 families. Most proofs use the Lean language, which means computers can automatically verify them.

Back in July this year, Anthropic stated that its Claude Mythos Preview model reduced the critical strength of HAWK, a candidate anti-quantum signature submitted to NIST, by 50% in 60 hours. However, Anthropic emphasized that since HAWK has never been deployed in actual systems, this result does not affect the safe operation of existing systems.

Another report pointed out that as of May 2026, Europol statistics showed that the number of bitcoins visible on the chain reached 6.04 million, accounting for about 30.2% of the supply, and the public keys of these addresses were all visible. state.