Buterin Slams AI Threat to Bitcoin: 'Extremely Low' Probability

Vitalik Buterin has rejected claims made by angel investor Liron Shapira that artificial intelligence could crash Bitcoin's price by more than half within two years.

The Ethereum co-founder fired back at Shapira's prediction, saying the underlying premise is 'extremely low' probability. He revealed that approximately 90% of his personal net worth is aligned with the thesis that Bitcoin's cryptographic underpinnings will hold.

Shapira argued that rapidly advancing AI systems could discover weaknesses in SHA-256 hashing or other cryptographic primitives that secure the Bitcoin network, potentially triggering a price collapse. However, Buterin countered that breaking SHA-256 would undermine most of modern internet security, from banking to military communications.

Buterin's position is that AI will make both attackers and defenders stronger, and the defenders have structural advantages when it comes to cryptographic security. He has been building a broader thesis for months that AI represents both risk and opportunity for blockchain security.