Could AI Cut Bitcoin’s Value in Half? Vitalik Buterin Says the Odds Are ‘Tiny’

Buterin says Bitcoin can handle network-layer attacks without needing the kind of broad social consensus required for deeper protocol changes. Vitalik Buterin has rejected a warning that artificial intelligence could cause Bitcoin to lose half its value by weakening assumptions about the network’s security. In reply to crypto commentator Liron Shapira, Buterin said the chance of AI actually breaking Bitcoin’s hashing or proof-of-work is “tiny,” while arguing that the harder issue would be moving the network through a security upgrade. Buterin Sees the Bigger Risk in the Transition Shapira posted that he had “50% confidence” BTC would crash 50% or more within two years because AI could undermine what people had imagined were Bitcoin’s security guarantees. Buterin took the other side. He said he is optimistic about cybersecurity over the long run and sees the main risk as managing the transition itself, not a cryptographic failure, arguing Bitcoin should handle network-layer problems, the kind fixed by upgrading clients or mining pools, without needing broad social consensus. “I expect BTC to handle at least any issues that do not require social consensus well (upgrading clients, min...