Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake is urging large cryptocurrency holders to move funds into fresh, unexposed addresses, warning that AI-assisted mathematical breakthroughs could crack the signature scheme securing Bitcoin and Ethereum within months rather than years. Coinbase's head of cryptography pushed back, arguing no evidence supports the claim.
Justin Drake, an Ethereum Foundation researcher, urged the blockchain industry on Wednesday to begin planning for "bunker mode", warning that artificial intelligence could uncover mathematical shortcuts capable of cracking the signature algorithm protecting Bitcoin and Ethereum far sooner than expected.
A worst case measured in weeks
Drake is not claiming anyone has broken ECDSA, the elliptic-curve algorithm used throughout crypto. But he argues the worst-case timeline for a break could be months rather than years. A successful attack could potentially allow private key recovery in as little as one week on a large GPU cluster.
His proposed defense is simple: large holders should move the bulk of their funds to addresses that have never signed a transaction, since a wallet's public key stays hidden behind a hash until it first spends.
AI math research reignites an old worry
Drake cited OpenAI's recent mathematical research as evidence that AI-driven discovery is moving faster than expected, pointing to how long-held conjectures such as the n log(n) bound for integer multiplication and the 3SUM conjecture recently fell. He singled out Binance, Bitbank, Robinhood, Bitfinex and Tether as institutions that should harden their cold storage. He also flagged approximately 20,000 early Bitcoin addresses holding 50 BTC apiece as especially exposed.
Industry splits over the warning
Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi called the backlash telling: According to Bitcoin.com News: "Doomerism has now hit cryptography," he wrote, arguing the risk is conventional mathematics overturning unproven assumptions rather than quantum computing. Coinbase head of cryptography Yehuda Lindell pushed back, saying no evidence points to a break in decades-old hardness assumptions such as elliptic-curve cryptography.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin took a middle position. He does not recommend anyone rush to move funds into new wallets today, though he agrees AI-assisted mathematics deserves serious consideration.
Source: Bitcoin News
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