Bitcoin developer and JAN3 Chief Executive Samson Mow warned the Bitcoin community against rushing to post-quantum cryptography. Mow said an early and undertested transition could introduce more near-term vulnerabilities before the quantum risk the network aims to solve.
Risks of early transition
Mow argues that the cautious development approach that Bitcoin has long adopted should be preserved. According to him, premature replacement of existing ECDSA and Schnorr signature structures with post-quantum alternatives could unintentionally make the network more vulnerable to attacks by classical computers.
Mow reminded that a few months ago, he warned that Bitcoin’s hasty transition to post-quantum signatures could open the door to classical attacks, and emphasized that it is now discussed that artificial intelligence can find such vulnerabilities faster.
ECDSA and Schnorr, used to verify transactions on the Bitcoin network, are known as established and widely studied digital signature methods. Mow thinks a change before quantum computers become a truly viable threat could upset the security balance.
Mow stated that the right time to switch to post-quantum signatures will come only when a clear and concrete threat emerges. He stated that this approach is compatible with Bitcoin’s slow, steady and conservative development line.
Anthropic research accelerates debate
In the background of the discussion is a research published by Anthropic. The company’s artificial intelligence model Mythos Preview has found new attack methods against some weakened cryptographic algorithms. Anthropic stands out as a research company known for its work in the field of artificial intelligence security.
The research found a significantly faster attack against a reduced-round version of the Advanced Encryption Standard. The researchers also reported progress on a known private key recovery attack targeting HAWK.
Mini dictionary: HAWK is a new generation digital signature approach mentioned in post-quantum security discussions. Crypto agility refers to the ability to change the cryptographic algorithms used without redesigning an entire system.
Anthropic noted that these findings do not pose a direct threat at this stage. Despite this, the study has raised the question of whether artificial intelligence will create additional risks for some post-quantum cryptography methods in the future in the Bitcoin community.
Guillemet points out need for flexible cryptography
Ledger Technology Director Charles Guillemet also said that the research shows how quickly artificial intelligence is changing the cyber security field. Guillemet stated that the result in question does not weaken the entire lattice-based cryptography, but rather targets HAWK’s newer security assumptions.
Charles Guillemet emphasized that the increasingly clear lesson is cryptographic agility. According to him, the ability to change algorithms without reinstalling the entire system may soon become a basic requirement for secure software.
Mow, on the other hand, welcomed the research carried out by Blockstream cryptographers in this process. In particular, he noted that hash-based schemes can have a narrower mathematical attack surface compared to lattice-based alternatives such as HAWK.
