Ben-Sasson Warns Crypto Must Prep for AI and Quantum Threats at Once

Eli Ben-Sasson has a message for crypto builders: stop lumping your future threats together. According to Cointelegraph, the StarkWare co-founder said post-quantum security is not the same thing as post-AI security — two separate challenges that demand separate preparation.

He didn't stop at the distinction. Ben-Sasson pushed projects to gear up for both, framing it as a pair of problems the industry needs to solve rather than a single checkbox.

The crypto world has spent years chewing over quantum risk, mostly arguing about timelines and which signature schemes survive a future machine that breaks today's cryptography. AI-driven threats are a newer conversation, and they don't look anything like the quantum problem. Ben-Sasson's point is that treating them as interchangeable leaves gaps.

Ben-Sasson is best known as a co-founder of StarkWare and a pioneer of zk-STARK technology, work that lives squarely in the cryptography-and-proofs corner of the industry. That background gives his warning weight: he's talking about the kind of math that holds blockchains together.

For now, this is a flag planted, not a product launch. No timeline, no fix announced — just a nudge to teams that assume one upgrade covers everything coming at them.