Could AI Brute Force Crypto's Keys? - Uneasy Money

Quick favor: We’re deciding what Unchained does next; new shows, stream times, what’s worth paying for. Our listener survey (https://unchainedcrypto.com/survey) takes five minutes, it’s anonymous, and I read the write-in answers myself. Everyone who takes it can enter a drawing for a free year of Unchained Premium or Bits + Bips Premium. Open through Sunday, October 18. — Laura ======================================================================== Rumors that OpenAI's latest math work could make elliptic curve keys easier to brute force have crypto on edge. Ben DiFrancesco, Founder and CEO of ScopeLift, puts low odds on it, but walks Kain Warwick, Taylor Monahan, and Austin Griffith through what a worst-case break would look like, who would be targeted first, why traditional finance could end up the worse place to hold money, and why Chinese open-weight models would set the clock. ======================================================================== Hosts: 👉 Kain Warwick - Host of Uneasy Money and Founder of Infinex and Synthetix - https://x.com/kain 👉 Taylor Monahan - Co-host of Uneasy Money and Security Expert - https://x.com/tayvano_ 👉 Austin Griffith - Co-host of Uneasy Money and Builder Enablement at Ethereum Foundation - https://x.com/austingriffith Guest: 👉 Ben DiFrancesco - Founder and CEO of ScopeLift - https://x.com/BenDiFrancesco ======================================================================== This clip is from a longer conversation on AI and crypto's cryptography, ZachXBT's undercover investigation, and the Safe governance fight. Full episode here: https://youtu.be/mD7UY-1xQL0 We go live every Wednesday - subscribe to catch it live. ======================================================================== 👉 Visit 1inch to swap tokenized securities, crypto and more. Simple. Secure. Self-custodial. Whatever asset you’re buying - swap it at https://unchainedcrypto.com/go/1inch-yt ======================================================================== Chapters: 📈 00:00 Why Ben says the AI moment feels like the start of COVID's curve 🧮 02:26 Why even a worst-case ECC break wouldn't mean instant theft 🏛️ 07:41 Taylor on why governments, not Satoshi's coins, would be hit first 🏦 08:28 Why Ben thinks TradFi could end up the worse place to hold money ⏳ 10:31 The clock: how fast Chinese open-weight models could catch up 🧯 12:35 Why rushing to rotate cold wallets is the bigger risk for most holders 🤖 13:20 How AI models went from flubbing 2+2 to formalizing hard math 🧅 16:20 Austin on why clever math breaks ECDSA before hash functions 👽 18:22 Would superintelligent math still make sense to humans?