Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake urged the crypto industry to begin preparing for a potential scenario in which artificial intelligence significantly accelerates the search for ways to break modern cryptography. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin backed a cautious response, saying users should not rush to move funds even as Ethereum seeks to reduce reliance on cryptography built on structured mathematical assumptions.

Drake said the ECDSA signature algorithm could become vulnerable not because of quantum computers, but because of mathematical breakthroughs accelerated by AI. In his worst-case scenario, recovering a private key from a public key could become possible within months rather than years.

He stressed that the threat was a projected risk, not a claim that ECDSA had already been broken.

Drake urges use of “fresh” addresses

As a precaution, Drake recommended that large holders gradually move assets to “fresh” addresses that have not been used to sign transactions. This would keep the public key hidden behind the address hash until the first signature.

After an address is used, he recommended moving any remaining funds to another new address. Drake said large cold-storage arrangements and systemically important signers, including oracles and security councils for layer-2 networks, warranted particular attention.

Drake also warned against rushing a migration, saying errors during mass asset transfers could cause more harm than the potential cryptographic threat.

He proposed accelerating Ethereum’s transition to hash-based cryptography. Drake said such constructions could be less vulnerable to future mathematical breakthroughs than schemes relying on elliptic curves, lattices or other structured mathematical objects.

Buterin cautions against panic

Buterin said he did not recommend that users rush to move funds to new wallets, while agreeing that the potential effects of AI-accelerated mathematical progress on cryptography should be considered.

He said the potential issue extended beyond ECDSA and identified lattice-based cryptography as another area of risk, including ML-DSA and FHE. Buterin suggested that AI-assisted mathematical breakthroughs could significantly affect security assessments of such schemes over the next two years.

Buterin said Ethereum was already moving toward a “hashes-only” approach for signatures and proofs. Where hash-based cryptography is possible, he said, it has an advantage over lattice-based constructions.

He said the largest challenge involved public-key encryption, which is needed beyond blockchains, including for secure communications and privacy protocols.

For multisignature wallets, Buterin recommended using off-chain signatures to minimize the period between revealing a signature and rotating the key. He also said signers should rotate keys after every transaction where possible.

Buterin separately warned that rushed migrations could themselves result in losses if wallet upgrades were carried out incorrectly.

In August 2026, Incrypted reported that Ethereum would change its cryptographic strategy after years of research into the Poseidon hash.

Source: Incrypted