On October 7, Europol warned that quantum computers threaten exposed private keys, not blockchains themselves, and called on developers, exchanges, and users to begin a phased migration to post-quantum solutions immediately. On the same day, Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake said AI-driven mathematics could break cryptographic signatures before quantum computers do, and urged holders to calmly move their funds to unused addresses.
Taken together, the urgency comes down to the same point: once your public key has been exposed on-chain, it is no longer a secret. Europol’s “future unauthorized transfers” and Drake’s “AI breaking signatures first” point to the same set of addresses.
I also took a look at what Michael Zhao of Grayscale Research said that day: AI is making it cheap to link wallet addresses to real people, while on-chain records never expire. Nearly 29% of all ZEC mined on the Zcash network is sitting in the shielded pool—a figure that shows some people are already voting with their actions.
There’s just one thing ordinary holders can do: move coins from addresses they’ve used and whose public keys have been exposed to a brand-new address that has never sent a transaction. No need to wait for quantum computers—AI is already enough. $BTC $ZEC
Taken together, the urgency comes down to the same point: once your public key has been exposed on-chain, it is no longer a secret. Europol’s “future unauthorized transfers” and Drake’s “AI breaking signatures first” point to the same set of addresses.
I also took a look at what Michael Zhao of Grayscale Research said that day: AI is making it cheap to link wallet addresses to real people, while on-chain records never expire. Nearly 29% of all ZEC mined on the Zcash network is sitting in the shielded pool—a figure that shows some people are already voting with their actions.
There’s just one thing ordinary holders can do: move coins from addresses they’ve used and whose public keys have been exposed to a brand-new address that has never sent a transaction. No need to wait for quantum computers—AI is already enough. $BTC $ZEC