Two core figures of Ethereum warn on the same day: AI may break through cryptocurrency earlier than quantum computers First, let me introduce two people: Vitalik Buterin is the founder of Ethereum; Justin Drake is a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, responsible for Ethereum's cryptography and long-term roadmap research. On October 7th, the two of them sent long posts to discuss the same issue. 1、 Background Bitcoin and Ethereum use ECDSA (elliptic curve signature) to protect their assets. The industry was originally worried about 'Quantum Day', which refers to quantum computers cracking elliptic curves, but it is generally believed that there are still several years left. The new variable is AI: According to the post, several long accepted mathematical hypotheses have been overturned recently, and OpenAI has released 722 mathematical achievements. 2、 Justin Drake: Enter 'bunker mode' He believes that ECDSA may have been breached before Quantum Day, and in the worst case scenario, within a few months, a large GPU cluster could calculate the private key in about a week. The reason is that elliptic curves have rich mathematical structures and are easy for AI to find breakthroughs, while the design goal of hash functions is to have as little structure as possible. His suggestion: 1. Transfer assets to a new address that has never been signed before. The address is just a hash of the public key, without spending money, the public key is not exposed, and attackers have no way to attack. 2. After each transfer from a certain address, the remaining funds can also be transferred to a new address using the same set of mnemonic words. 3. Major players and institutions took the lead, naming Binance, Robinhood, Bitfinex, Tether, and others to strengthen their cold wallets. People holding less than 50 BTC don't need to be too anxious. Satoshi Nakamoto has about 20000 public keys exposed, each storing 50 BTC of addresses, and attackers are likely to target those first. 5. Key signatories such as oracle machines and L2 security committees should change their public key every time they sign, or add hash signatures such as SPHINCS to make multiple signatures. 6. Don't panic or rush, the harm of hasty migration may be greater. 3、 Vitalik: Even 'post quantum cryptography' should be guarded against He does not recommend everyone to hastily switch currencies today, but believes that the risk is not limited to the elliptic curve. At present, most mainstream post quantum solutions are based on "lattice cryptography", which was considered secure in the past, but the AI mathematics in the next two years may greatly discount it. Just like in the past when the number field filtering method required RSA keys to increase from tens of bytes to about 400 bytes, there may also be shortcuts hidden in lattice ciphers that humans have not discovered but AI can find. His suggestion: 1. Where hash schemes can be used, priority should be given to hashing rather than grids. Ethereum has been moving towards "hash only" in the past year. 2. In areas where grids are necessary, the parameters should be significantly increased. This is not only related to blockchain, but also to website access, encrypted communication, Tor, and VPN. 3. Privacy agreement: Do not put encrypted information on the chain, instead transmit it off chain. 4. If convenient, place the funds at an address where no transactions have been initiated. But migration needs to be extra careful, as he himself lost more money in the migration mistake than he was hacked. 5. Multi signature wallets should collect signatures off chain as much as possible. In this way, even if ECDSA is breached, the worst scenario would be that it becomes "controlled by the person collecting the signature" rather than "anyone can take it away". 4、 One sentence summary Drake is more urgent and advocates taking action now; Vitalik is more restrained and focuses on the long-term path. The common bottom line is: value it, but don't panic, stable migration is more important than fast.