Researchers warn that AI is accelerating the development of quantum computing, posing a potential threat to the security of the crypto industry.

According to Mars Finance, on May 24th, security researchers warned that AI is accelerating the development of quantum computing and may prematurely threaten the modern encryption systems upon which crypto networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum rely. Project Eleven CEO Alex Pruden stated, "The future security landscape will be completely different. The combination of quantum computing and AI will render past security methods unreliable." The report states that AI has already been used to optimize key technological bottlenecks such as quantum error correction, potentially shortening the timeline for the practical deployment of quantum computers. NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin also stated that AI is continuously accelerating scientific research progress, and "the next generation of quantum computers may even be built with AI assistance." Researchers are also concerned that a "collect first, decrypt later" strategy has begun to emerge, where some governments or institutions collect encrypted data in advance, waiting for future quantum computers to mature before cracking it. Because blockchain networks such as Bitcoin and Ethereum widely use elliptic curve cryptography (ECC), theoretically, powerful quantum computers can deduce private keys from public keys, thus threatening wallet security. Currently, multiple blockchain ecosystems, including Ethereum, Solana, Zcash, Ripple, and NEAR, have begun researching or deploying "post-quantum cryptography" migration solutions. However, researchers point out that current quantum encryption schemes still suffer from problems such as large size and slow speed, and the industry may need to enter a long-term competition phase of "continuously upgrading security systems" in the future.