How Crypto Can Survive If AI or Quantum Computers Break Its Cryptography
Unchained | Oct 21 2026 | 01:01:40
Justin Drake says crypto should brace for AI breaking elliptic curves before Q-Day. Project Eleven's Alex Pruden and Conor Deegan weigh in on what's actually at risk.
========================================================
Thank you to our sponsor!
Put your crypto to work with Nexo: earn daily interest or borrow funds against your assets on one platform trusted by more than 10 million clients.
Find out more at https://unchainedcrypto.com/go/nexo-podcast-sn.
Geo-restrictions, eligibility and terms apply.
========================================================
Quick favor: We're deciding what Unchained does next; new shows, stream times, what's worth paying for. Our listener survey takes five minutes, it's anonymous, and I read the write-in answers myself. Everyone who takes it can enter a drawing for a free year of Unchained Premium or Bits + Bips Premium. Open through Sunday, October 18.
— Laura
========================================================
Ethereum researcher Justin Drake set off a debate across crypto by urging chains to plan for "bunker mode," a controlled migration of assets to addresses whose public keys stay hidden behind a hash. His concern is not only quantum computers, but AI getting good enough at math to break elliptic curves first.
Alex Pruden, co-founder and CEO of Project Eleven, and Conor Deegan, its CTO, join Laura Shin to sort out what is at risk. They cover how ECDSA works, why Conor says no scheme in production is broken yet even though Hawk and McEliece fell to AI attacks, why Coinbase's Yehuda Lindell notes hash functions have broken more often than curves, and why NIST still favors lattices.
Alex updates his Q-Day window to 2030 at the earliest and 2033 to 2035 as more likely than not. Both argue the post-quantum and post-AI migrations are the same work, and the chains most at risk may be those doing nothing.
Host:
Laura Shin, Host / Unchained
Guests:
Alex Pruden - Co-founder and CEO of Project Eleven
Conor Deegan - CTO of Project Eleven
Timestamps
🎬 00:00 Intro
🛡️ 02:20 Why Justin Drake's 'bunker mode' tweet adds AI to quantum as a crypto threat
🔑 06:01 What ECDSA is and why its hidden 'trapdoor' structure worries people about AI
🧮 08:33 Why Conor says no scheme is broken yet, even as two cryptographic schemes fell to AI
🔐 13:06 Matthew Green's encryption warning and why privacy chains like Zcash are exposed
💼 17:20 Nexo: Generate daily interest on your crypto or borrow funds against your assets at https://unchainedcrypto.com/go/nexo-podcast-yt
⚖️ 18:04 Where Conor lands between Yehuda Lindell and Justin Drake on AI breaking curves
🏦 25:53 Can blockchains recover if ECDSA breaks? Alex on the ETH Classic fork precedent
🧩 29:59 Curves, lattices, isogenies, or hashes: why NIST still prefers lattices
📅 48:14 Alex's updated Q-Day window and why Conor says 'A-Day' may already be here
🚨 53:05 Haseeb Qureshi's 'cryptographic wartime' and Balaji's rollback idea
🏗️ 58:41 Strongpoint: Project Eleven's crypto-agile custody and pricing quantum risk
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
========================================================
Thank you to our sponsor!
Put your crypto to work with Nexo: earn daily interest or borrow funds against your assets on one platform trusted by more than 10 million clients.
Find out more at https://unchainedcrypto.com/go/nexo-podcast-sn.
Geo-restrictions, eligibility and terms apply.
========================================================
Quick favor: We're deciding what Unchained does next; new shows, stream times, what's worth paying for. Our listener survey takes five minutes, it's anonymous, and I read the write-in answers myself. Everyone who takes it can enter a drawing for a free year of Unchained Premium or Bits + Bips Premium. Open through Sunday, October 18.
— Laura
========================================================
Ethereum researcher Justin Drake set off a debate across crypto by urging chains to plan for "bunker mode," a controlled migration of assets to addresses whose public keys stay hidden behind a hash. His concern is not only quantum computers, but AI getting good enough at math to break elliptic curves first.
Alex Pruden, co-founder and CEO of Project Eleven, and Conor Deegan, its CTO, join Laura Shin to sort out what is at risk. They cover how ECDSA works, why Conor says no scheme in production is broken yet even though Hawk and McEliece fell to AI attacks, why Coinbase's Yehuda Lindell notes hash functions have broken more often than curves, and why NIST still favors lattices.
Alex updates his Q-Day window to 2030 at the earliest and 2033 to 2035 as more likely than not. Both argue the post-quantum and post-AI migrations are the same work, and the chains most at risk may be those doing nothing.
Host:
Laura Shin, Host / Unchained
Guests:
Alex Pruden - Co-founder and CEO of Project Eleven
Conor Deegan - CTO of Project Eleven
Timestamps
🎬 00:00 Intro
🛡️ 02:20 Why Justin Drake's 'bunker mode' tweet adds AI to quantum as a crypto threat
🔑 06:01 What ECDSA is and why its hidden 'trapdoor' structure worries people about AI
🧮 08:33 Why Conor says no scheme is broken yet, even as two cryptographic schemes fell to AI
🔐 13:06 Matthew Green's encryption warning and why privacy chains like Zcash are exposed
💼 17:20 Nexo: Generate daily interest on your crypto or borrow funds against your assets at https://unchainedcrypto.com/go/nexo-podcast-yt
⚖️ 18:04 Where Conor lands between Yehuda Lindell and Justin Drake on AI breaking curves
🏦 25:53 Can blockchains recover if ECDSA breaks? Alex on the ETH Classic fork precedent
🧩 29:59 Curves, lattices, isogenies, or hashes: why NIST still prefers lattices
📅 48:14 Alex's updated Q-Day window and why Conor says 'A-Day' may already be here
🚨 53:05 Haseeb Qureshi's 'cryptographic wartime' and Balaji's rollback idea
🏗️ 58:41 Strongpoint: Project Eleven's crypto-agile custody and pricing quantum risk
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices