Justin Drake, a researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, has advised the blockchain industry to prepare for a so-called bunker mode. He suggests that the ECDSA digital signature algorithm, which secures transactions on Bitcoin and Ethereum, could potentially be compromised by AI-driven mathematical advancements before the arrival of powerful quantum computers.
Drake warns that in a worst-case scenario, this could occur within months rather than years. He defines a break as the ability to recover private keys rapidly using available hardware, such as a large GPU cluster. The researcher points to recent progress by OpenAI in mathematical research as evidence of the emergence of mathematical superintelligence.
To mitigate risks, Drake recommends that large and sophisticated holders move funds to fresh addresses that have never signed a transaction, as public keys are only exposed after a signature is created. He specifically urged institutions like Binance, Bitbank, Robinhood, Bitfinex, and Tether to consider hardening their cold storage security measures.
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, supported the idea of using fresh addresses but cautioned against rushed migrations, noting that he has personally lost more funds through botched transfers than through hacks. He advocates for hash-based cryptography as a more secure alternative to structured mathematical models like elliptic curves or lattices.
Buterin also suggested that for multisig wallets, confirmations should be handled off-chain to prevent exposing participant signatures to the public. He emphasized the need to take the threat of AI-accelerated mathematics seriously, noting that it could impact not only blockchain security but also public-key encryption used in secure messaging and VPNs.
