Morning Minute is a daily newsletter authored by Tyler Warner. The insights and views shared represent his personal beliefs and do not necessarily mirror those of Decrypt. Don’t forget to check out our daily news show, ‘FOMO HOUR’, which covers all the key stories and market movements.
Headline News:
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Major cryptocurrencies drop another 2-3%, with BTC priced at $82.6k
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Ethereum researcher Justin Drake highlights AI hacking risks, urges adoption of “Bunker Mode”
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Bitcoin ETFs experience largest outflow since late June
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Tom Lee announces he will cease purchasing ETH at 5%, a level he expects to hit soon
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Near Intents reveals Confidential Intents on DarkSwap on Solana (Dark +169%)
🔐 Ethereum Researcher Warns AI May Crack Crypto Encryption Before Quantum Technology
Justin Drake, a researcher affiliated with the Ethereum Foundation, has long cautioned that quantum computers could potentially undermine the mathematical foundations protecting crypto wallets. On Wednesday, he expressed an even more alarming concern: AI technology could potentially achieve this goal even sooner, possibly within months.
Drake is urging the community to implement what he terms “bunker mode.” He suggests transferring cryptocurrencies to new addresses that have never initiated a transaction.
Here’s the significance: each wallet has a private key that must be kept confidential, along with a public key generated from it. The public key is hidden behind a scrambled version until a transaction is made. Once a transaction occurs, the public key becomes permanently visible on the blockchain. If someone finds a way to reverse-engineer a public key to reveal the private key, every wallet that has executed transactions could be compromised. Conversely, wallets that have only received transactions remain secure.
The method used for this calculation is known as ECDSA, and both Bitcoin and Ethereum rely on it. Drake believes it’s now logical to prepare for a potential breach occurring before quantum systems arrive, possibly in a matter of months rather than years. He indicates that such a breach could allow the recovery of a private key in approximately one week using a significant number of graphics cards.
His change in perspective stems from the remarkable pace at which AI is solving complex equations. He referenced 722 mathematical discoveries published by OpenAI on Tuesday. His position is that elliptic curves, the foundation of ECDSA, exhibit intricate mathematical patterns that a superintelligent AI might leverage, whereas the hashing techniques used to conceal public keys are engineered to thwart such manipulations.
Ethereum Researcher Says AI May Break Encryption Before Quantum Does
He highlighted Binance, Bitbank, Robinhood, Bitfinex, and Tether, urging them to reinforce their cold storage security. Additionally, he provided some reassurance to smaller investors: approximately 20,000 addresses thought to belong to the creator of Bitcoin each contain 50 BTC with publicly exposed keys. If anyone were to breach this security, those addresses would likely be their initial target. He refers to this as Satoshi’s shield.