Dragonfly Partner Opposes Crypto Industry Falling into 'Doomsday Panic': Migrating Assets Is Not a Fundamental Solution, Proactive Recovery Mechanisms Should Be Established

October 9: Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi criticized Ethereum researcher Justin Drake's proposed "Bunker Mode" as "cryptographic doomerism," arguing that if AI breaks encryption signature mechanisms, merely migrating assets to new addresses will not fundamentally solve the problem. If assets in other addresses are stolen on a large scale and sold off, even if the migrated assets remain temporarily safe, their value could still be severely impacted.

Qureshi proposed that blockchain networks establish a "cryptographic recovery mode," allowing users to pre-bind hash-based backup signature schemes to addresses, and when existing cryptographic signatures are compromised, validators would forcibly initiate an asset recovery mechanism.

According to Glassnode data, approximately 6.26 million BTC are currently held in addresses with public key exposure risk, accounting for more than 31% of Bitcoin's total supply. Of this, about 4.33 million BTC are at risk due to address reuse, which can be eliminated by migrating to new addresses; another approximately 1.94 million BTC face risks due to address format. The related risk exposure held by exchanges is close to 1.8 million BTC, accounting for about 57% of exchange BTC balances.

Previously, Justin Drake warned that AI could accelerate the cracking of the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) used by crypto wallets, with risks potentially emerging in months rather than years in the worst case. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin also believes that the risks posed by AI-accelerated mathematical research should be taken seriously, but does not recommend that users rush to transfer assets.