Vitalik Buterin: The Threat of AI-Driven Cryptocurrency Wallet Breaches

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has warned about the risks of cryptocurrency wallet breaches using artificial intelligence. The development of AI could accelerate the search for mathematical vulnerabilities in the cryptography underlying the security of Bitcoin and other networks.

Risks to Digital Signature Algorithms

Buterin admits that the ECDSA algorithm could become vulnerable significantly earlier than expected. This creates a potential threat for users storing assets on standard addresses.

Recommendations for Protecting Funds

To minimize risks, the expert suggests the following precautions:

• Store cryptocurrency on addresses from which no outgoing transactions have been made
• Do not publish signatures of multi-signature wallet participants on the blockchain
• Change keys after every transaction
• Use hash-based cryptography

It is important to note that Buterin urged against rushing to transfer funds to new wallets. According to his personal experience, financial losses from errors during asset transfers exceeded amounts lost in all known hacks.