Vitalik: AI Speedrunning 50 Years of Math Could Break Today's Cryptography
VitalikButerin · x · 2026-11-03
Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin voiced a distinctive worry in a discussion with cryptographers: algorithms as powerful as the quadratic sieve was for ECDLP/pairings — or stronger-than-today lattice-breaking methods — may already exist undiscovered, and AI could 'speedrun' 50+ years of math in 5 years and find them.
The thread stems from recent claims by researchers like sja1729 that the mathematical structure quantum methods exploit could also be leveraged by AI agents, making the migration to post-quantum cryptography more urgent than commonly assumed.
Related event: Vitalik Warns AI Could Break Current Cryptography Within Five Years(2 posts)→
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