Cryptographers Urgently Debating Whether AI Could Break Bitcoin’s Security ‘in Months’
Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake warned the blockchain industry on Wednesday to begin preparing for what he called “bunker mode,” arguing that AI-driven mathematical breakthroughs could crack a digital signature scheme used by Bitcoin before quantum computers do. Bitcoin has historically relied on ECDSA signatures, while newer Taproot outputs use Schnorr signatures. “By ‘break’ I mean fast private key recovery (e.g. in one week) on available hardware (e.g. a large GPU cluster).” Today I call upon the blockchain industry to calmly begin planning for "bunker mode".
- ▪Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake warned the blockchain industry on Wednesday to begin preparing for what he called “bunker mode,” arguing that AI-driven mathematical breakthroughs could crack a digital signature scheme used by Bi
- ▪Bitcoin has historically relied on ECDSA signatures, while newer Taproot outputs use Schnorr signatures.
- ▪“By ‘break’ I mean fast private key recovery (e.g. in one week) on available hardware (e.g. a large GPU cluster).” Today I call upon the blockchain industry to calmly begin planning for "bunker mode".
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| Original publisher | Gizmodo |
| Canonical URL | https://gizmodo.com/cryptographers-urgently-debating-whether-ai-could-break-bitcoins-security-in-months-2000823670 |
| Publication time | Thu, 08 Oct 2026 18:20:52 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-10-08T18:23:01.454Z |
| Last seen | 2026-10-08T18:23:01.454Z |
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| Summary source text | contentText |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake warned the blockchain industry on Wednesday to begin preparing for what he called “bunker mode,” arguing that AI-driven mathematical breakthroughs could crack a digital signature scheme used by Bitcoin before quantum computers do. Bitcoin has historically relied on ECDSA signatures, while newer Taproot outputs use Schnorr signatures. Drake’s warning specifically concerns the possibility of an imminent break in…
Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Gizmodo.
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