Bitcoin unlikely to crash 50% on AI risks: Buterin says

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin rejected a Sept. 7 prediction that artificial intelligence could undermine confidence in Bitcoin’s security and cause its price to fall by more than 50% within two years. Summary Buterin rejected Liron Shapira’s prediction that AI-related security fears could halve Bitcoin within two years. Shapira assigned 50% confidence to Bitcoin crashing over 50% as AI undermines perceived network robustness. Buterin considers actual breaks of Bitcoin’s hashing or proof-of-work mechanisms extremely unlikely over that period. He said client and mining-pool upgrades could address network-layer attacks without requiring social consensus decisions. Bitcoin security groups have separately sought advanced AI access so defenders can identify vulnerabilities earlier. Investor and AI-risk commentator Liron Shapira assigned a “50% confidence” level to his prediction that Bitcoin would suffer such a decline because AI could weaken what users consider the network’s security or robustness, according to his original post. Buterin said he took “the opposite side” of that forecast. His response focused on Bitcoin’s technical adaptability rather than its market price, arguing...