Vitalik: AI May Accelerate Cryptanalysis, Recommends Prioritizing Hash-Based Encryption Schemes

On October 8, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin warned that AI accelerating mathematical research could pose a serious threat to existing cryptographic systems within the next two years, particularly lattice cryptography (Lattices), ML-DSA, FHE, and other schemes, with ECDSA also facing a heightened risk of being compromised sooner than anticipated.

Vitalik pointed out that AI could potentially replicate breakthroughs equivalent to the shift from naive factoring to the Number Field Sieve, substantially undermining the security of lattice cryptography. In such a scenario, hash-based schemes would outperform lattice cryptography across the board in efficiency. The Ethereum Lean Roadmap is already advancing in a "pure hash" direction, utilizing signature schemes like WOTS or SPHINCS+ while avoiding any lattice-based components.

Regarding his personal stance, Vitalik offered the following recommendations:

• Prioritize hash-based schemes and replace lattice cryptography wherever feasible.
• Conservatively estimate lattice parameter sizes; it is advisable to increase key sizes by 10 times.
• Privacy protocols should avoid uploading encrypted information on-chain, opting instead for offline transmission through third parties.
• For multi-signature wallets, offline confirmation is recommended to prevent signatures from being publicly exposed.
• Appropriate funds can be held in "fresh addresses" that have never initiated transactions; however, migration procedures require caution, as losses from operational mistakes may far outweigh those from hacker attacks.