Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson on October 9 rejected Vitalik Buterin\u2019s warning that AI-accelerated math could weaken lattice-based cryptography.<\/p>\n
At stake is whether Ethereum\u2019s hash-only roadmap rests on better evidence than the lattice schemes it avoids, and Hoskinson argues that it does not.<\/p>\n
In a lengthy post on X, Hoskinson challenged<\/a> the mathematical reasoning behind Buterin\u2019s earlier warning, arguing that the Ethereum co-founder has not identified a credible attack capable of breaking lattice-based cryptography.<\/p>\n \u201cThe case against lattices is the GNFS story, a.k.a. a hunch about \u2018structure,\u2019 and a multiplier pulled out of thin air,\u201d the Cardano founder wrote.<\/p>\n Buterin\u2019s argument draws on the history of integer factorization, where decades of research produced the General Number Field Sieve (GNFS), which made factoring large numbers far more efficient than initially expected. According to him, AI could discover comparable shortcuts for lattice problems, forcing developers to increase cryptographic parameters substantially.<\/p>\n Hoskinson rebutted by mentioning that lattices have already been attacked for decades now, including in the LLL attack in 1982 and further optimization of lattice sieving. He also pointed out that two post-quantum cryptographic systems, namely ML-KEM and ML-DSA, have taken into account these attacks.<\/p>\n He also challenged Buterin\u2019s suggestion that hash-based cryptography is inherently safer because hashes lack exploitable mathematical structure. MD5 and SHA-1, Hoskinson noted, were both broken through attacks on their internal designs. He added that Poseidon and Poseidon2, hash functions used in Ethereum\u2019s cryptographic research, are built from algebraic operations and have also attracted cryptanalysis research.<\/p>\n \u201cSHA-256 has no theorem like that. Its security is that nobody has broken it yet,\u201d Hoskinson argued, disputing the idea that hash-based systems deserve greater confidence simply because no successful attack is known.<\/p>\n The Cardano founder further rejected Buterin\u2019s recommendation to multiply lattice-based key sizes by ten. In his view, parameter selection requires a specific attack-cost calculation, not a blanket multiplier based on a hypothetical breakthrough.<\/p>\n As CryptoPotato<\/em> reported yesterday, Buterin advised<\/a> users against rushing to move funds from ECDSA-based wallets while warning that AI-assisted mathematical advances could threaten existing cryptographic assumptions sooner than expected.<\/p>\n Ethereum\u2019s lean roadmap increasingly favors<\/a> hash-based signatures, including WOTS and SPHINCS+, where applicable. However, Buterin has acknowledged that public-key encryption presents a harder problem because secure communications, websites, VPNs and privacy protocols require mechanisms that hashes alone cannot provide.<\/p>\n But in Hoskinson\u2019s view, abandoning lattice-based systems before a concrete attack emerges could be counterproductive. He pointed to existing security research and standardization processes as the appropriate way to assess new threats, rather than abandoning a cryptographic family based on speculation.<\/p>\n The post Charles Hoskinson Disputes Vitalik Buterin\u2019s Warning Against Lattice Cryptography<\/a> appeared first on CryptoPotato<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson on October 9 rejected Vitalik Buterin\u2019s warning that AI-accelerated math could weaken lattice-based cryptography. At stake is whether Ethereum\u2019s hash-only roadmap rests on better evidence than the lattice schemes it avoids, and Hoskinson argues that it does not. Hoskinson Challenges Buterin\u2019s Case Against Lattice Cryptography In a lengthy post on X, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237632"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=237632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237632\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=237632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=237632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mycryptomania.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=237632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Ethereum\u2019s Roadmap Faces a Cryptographic Trade-Off<\/h2>\n