Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at crypto venture firm Dragonfly, dismissed Ethereum researcher Justin Drake's "bunker mode" warning as "cryptographic doomerism," arguing that migrating tokens to fresh addresses is not a real defense against the threat of artificial intelligence breaking cryptographic signatures.

In a Thursday X post, Qureshi wrote that "bunker mode" would only protect an investor's coins for as long as they stayed unmoved on the fresh address, adding that those coins would be "worthless if all of the other coins are being hacked and mass-sold."

Instead, he urged blockchain networks to adopt proactive measures to protect users in the event AI breaks cryptographic signatures. Qureshi proposed a "Cryptographic Recovery Mode," a hash-based backup signature plan that users could map to their addresses, enabling validators to force recovery if cryptographic signatures were broken.

The possibility of AI models or quantum computers breaking cryptographic signatures may threaten more than 31% of the Bitcoin supply, as 6.26 million Bitcoin (BTC) currently sit in vulnerable addresses, according to Glassnode.

The exposure traces back to how Bitcoin's cryptography works: an address is derived from a public key, and the full key stays hidden until coins are spent from that address — at that point it becomes visible on-chain. Coins that have never moved keep their public keys concealed, which is why address reuse, along with certain legacy address formats, leaves keys permanently exposed to anyone reading the blockchain.

Of that total, about 4.33 million BTC are exposed because of address reuse, and moving those coins to a fresh address would end the exposure. Another 1.94 million BTC are exposed through their address format, Glassnode co-founder Rafael Schultze-Kraft wrote in a Thursday X post.

Share of BTC supply with exposed public keys. Source: Rafael Schultze-Kraft

Of the total exposed supply, nearly 1.8 million BTC are held on cryptocurrency exchanges, with 57% of all exchange balances currently exposed. Because those balances are controlled by the platforms rather than individual holders, moving personal wallets to fresh addresses would not, by itself, reduce that portion of the exposure.

Related: Strategy-led group pledges $15M to quantum-proof Bitcoin network

Ethereum researcher warns AI may break ECDSA signatures in "months, not years"

On Wednesday, Ethereum researcher Justin Drake warned that rapid AI advancements could break the elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA) securing cryptocurrency wallets sooner than previously expected.

"It is now reasonable to brace for the possibility that ECDSA breaks before qday, in the worst case, in months, not years," Drake wrote in a Wednesday X post, citing a Tuesday OpenAI report on AI's progress in mathematics. The term "qday" refers to the hypothetical point at which a quantum computer could break the cryptographic schemes securing today's digital systems.

Drake advised users to gradually migrate their funds to fresh wallets where their public key is not exposed, arguing that AI advancements may threaten those holdings before quantum computers do.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin agreed that the industry should take the risks from "AI-accelerated math" seriously, but said he does not recommend that users rush to move their funds to fresh wallets.

The debate highlights a split between individual-level defenses and protocol-level fixes like the one Qureshi proposes, even as preparation work is already underway: a consortium led by Strategy has pledged $15 million toward quantum-proofing the Bitcoin network, and proposals such as BIP-360 outline a possible quantum upgrade path for the protocol.

Magazine: Bitcoin's quantum upgrade path: What BIP-360 changes and what it does not