'Bunker Mode' Won't Protect Your Crypto, Critics Say
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Written by
- Christina Comben, staff writer
- Edited by Andrew Fenton, staff editor
Published
- Oct 14, 2026
'Bunker mode' won’t protect your crypto, critics say
Even if Justin Drake’s prediction that AI could break cryptography proves correct, critics argue that “bunker mode” is an impractical solution unlikely to safeguard your digital assets. With rising geopolitical tensions already a cause for concern, the crypto community is now grappling with a nuclear-level threat.
The industry is delving into a dire cryptography doomsday scenario where attackers could derive private keys from public keys using advanced AI capabilities, once considered far-fetched but now raising legitimate alarms.
Ethereum researcher Justin Drake recently urged the industry to embrace “bunker mode” planning, citing “humbling” AI advancements that could accelerate mathematical attacks and potentially “break” cryptography. He stated:
“IMO it is now reasonable to brace for the possibility that ECDSA [Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm] breaks before Qday, in the worst case in months not years.”
Drake suggests migrating assets to fresh addresses with unexposed public keys to minimize exploitable information. However, his warning has sparked debates, with not all experts agreeing on the severity of the situation.
Is the Crypto Panic Justified?
Matthew Green, a cryptography professor at Johns Hopkins University, echoed Drake's concerns, suggesting a potential loss of public-key cryptography. In contrast, Yehuda Lindell, Coinbase’s head of cryptography, claimed there is no evidence weakening the mathematical foundations of elliptic curve cryptography.
Lucien Bourdon, a Bitcoin analyst at Trezor hardware wallet, agrees that there is no credible published attack on ECDSA. He questions Drake’s assumptions, noting that OpenAI's recent AI-generated math papers did not include ECDSA attacks.
Zach Herbert, CEO of FoundationHQ, adds that simply moving funds to new addresses may not be sufficient if an extended public key (xpub) has been shared with a wallet app or third parties.