Bitcoin developer and JAN3 CEO Samson Mow stated that the Bitcoin community should not rush to adopt post-quantum cryptography. He believes that hastily switching signature mechanisms before quantum computing poses a real threat could expose the network to more realistic traditional computing attacks.

This statement came after Anthropic released new research. The company stated that its AI model, Mythos Preview, discovered new attack methods on weakened cryptographic algorithms. While researchers say the results do not yet pose an immediate threat, the findings have prompted the Bitcoin community to re-examine the pace of post-quantum upgrades.

Mow advocates slowing down the pace of migration.

Mow stated on X that Bitcoin has consistently taken a conservative development path, and this should not change due to concerns about quantum computing. He said that he had reminded the community months ago not to rush to migrate from ECDSA or Schnorr signatures to post-quantum signatures, so as not to introduce new conventional attack surfaces.

According to him, changing the signature scheme too quickly could lead to a situation where, in an effort to prevent future quantum computers from being used, existing computers are compromised first. He believes that Bitcoin should only move towards a new signature scheme when quantum computers pose a clear threat.

Anthropic research sparks a new round of discussion.

Anthropic's research shows that Mythos Preview has found a faster attack method against weakened round-count AES, and also improved a known private key recovery attack against HAWK. However, the researchers also emphasized that these findings do not currently pose an immediate risk.

Nevertheless, the results have prompted the community to reassess whether some post-quantum cryptographic schemes will reveal weaknesses sooner than expected if AI continues to improve its cryptanalysis capabilities.

Community Focuses on Signature Scheme Replaceability

In his speech, Mow also mentioned the work of Blockstream cryptography researchers and stated that hash-based schemes have a smaller mathematical attack surface compared to lattice-based cryptographic alternatives like HAWK.

Ledger CTO Charles Guillemet also stated that AI is rapidly changing the cybersecurity landscape and may further alter cryptography itself. However, he pointed out that the Anthropic paper impacts the newer security assumptions of HAWK, rather than the entire lattice cryptography system.

Guillemet believes this development underscores the growing importance of "cryptographic substitutability," meaning the ability of a system to change its cryptographic algorithms without restructuring the overall architecture. He expressed hope to see this capability in Bitcoin in the future.