Bitcoin’s quantum plan assumes some algorithms break. AI just weakened one in 60 hours
The HAWK system isn’t deployed anywhere, and Bitcoin doesn’t use it. But is sitting in the same quantum race that Bitcoin developers are scrambling to finish.
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Summary
- Anthropic’s Claude Mythos Preview model uncovered a flaw in the proposed HAWK digital-signature scheme that effectively halves its smallest key strength, undermining one of the candidates to replace current web and banking signatures in a post-quantum world.
- The AI-driven attack, which cost about 60 hours and $100,000 in computing, slashed the work needed to break HAWK’s smallest parameter set from roughly 2^64 to 2^38 operations, while rendering larger, compensating key sizes far less attractive.
- Although today’s bitcoin and ether signatures are unaffected, the results reinforce warnings that classical cryptanalytic attacks are rapidly improving, just as bitcoin and other networks debate how and when to migrate to quantum-resistant cryptography.
