Buterin Dismisses Prediction of 50% Bitcoin Price Crash Due to AI Advances

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has disputed a prediction made by AI-risk commentator Liron Shapira that Bitcoin's price could fall by more than half within two years due to advances in artificial intelligence. According to Buterin, the probability of an actual break in Bitcoin's hashing system or proof-of-work mechanism is 'tiny.'

Buterin argued that many cybersecurity problems can be addressed through software and infrastructure upgrades, rather than requiring fundamental changes to the network. He pointed out that upgrading clients and mining pools can respond to network-layer attacks without altering Bitcoin's rules.

The debate centers on whether increasingly capable AI systems could compromise Bitcoin's security guarantees, with Shapira assigning a 50% probability to a decline of more than 50% within two years. Buterin, however, considers an actual break in the network's cryptographic foundations 'considerably less likely.'