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AI crypto threat debate

Experts are sharply divided over how urgently AI and quantum advances threaten existing blockchain wallet cryptography.

4 entriesThu, Oct 8 – Tue, Oct 20Bitcoin

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  1. Tue, Oct 20LatestVerified · 20 Oct 2026

    AI Attacks Kill Two Post-Quantum Candidates; NIST’s Chosen Standards Untouched

    HAWK, a candidate in NIST’s post-quantum signature round, was withdrawn in July after an AI-discovered key-recovery attack reportedly halved its effective security. Germany’s BSI this month advised against deploying Classic McEliece after analyses weakened it. Project Eleven’s co-founder — whose firm sells post-quantum custody — says AI found the flaws in the mathematics itself. The NIST-standardised schemes in live deployment plans, ML-DSA and ML-KEM, are unaffected.

  2. Fri, Oct 16Verified · 16 Oct 2026

    Google Demonstrates a Quantum Error Breakthrough; the Bitcoin-Breaking Threshold Stays Far Off

    Google reported in Science a 40-fold cut in “magic state” errors on its Willow chip — the special resource states that can consume most of a quantum computer’s capacity. The gap to code-breaking stands: 54 qubits were used, against an estimated ~500,000 to break Bitcoin’s cryptography, and the error rate remains about a million times short. Decrypt’s own verdict: nobody is draining wallets with this.

  3. Wed, Oct 14Verified · 14 Oct 2026

    Post-Quantum Lightning Defence Claimed

    Researchers from four American universities, led by Dr Ahmet Kurt of East Texas A&M, say they have built the first working post-quantum defence for Lightning, Bitcoin’s payments layer: government-standardised algorithms layered on its existing cryptography, so an attacker must break both. The claim is the team’s own, with no independent audit yet. Separately, Imperial College researchers published a no-soft-fork design as a paper, and Coinbase outlined priorities for Bitcoin’s own migration.

  4. Thu, Oct 8Verified · 8 Oct 2026

    Ethereum Researcher Urges 'Bunker Mode' Over AI Risk to Wallet Cryptography — Cryptographers Push Back

    Ethereum researcher Justin Drake urged the crypto industry into "bunker mode," warning that in a worst case AI could crack the elliptic-curve signatures securing wallets within months and advising large holders to migrate to fresh addresses — remarks coverage tied to recent AI mathematics results. Vitalik Buterin said AI could also accelerate attacks on post-quantum schemes but advised against rushed fund migrations. Cryptographers publicly disputed the framing. No demonstrated break of the underlying mathematics exists.