Vitalik Buterin warns AI is arming attackers and defending crypto at the same time

Vitalik Buterin wants the crypto world to look harder at the AI it's racing to adopt. Speaking at Devcon 8, the Ethereum co-founder said AI is simultaneously spawning new threats to security and privacy and handing defenders a better tool for finding vulnerabilities, according to Cointelegraph.

The warning cuts both ways, and Buterin didn't pretend otherwise. The same technology that helps sniff out bugs can be turned against users, he argued, making the case that crypto can't treat AI as a pure upgrade.

He also took aim at a piece of gear many traders treat as untouchable: hardware wallets. Buterin questioned how secure they really are, per Cointelegraph, a notable jab given how often self-custody advocates point to them as the gold standard.

Then came the trading advice. Buterin cautioned against making crypto investments based on social media posts, pointing to feeds stuffed with bots and manipulation doing the nudging. In other words, the timeline is not a research desk.

His prescription is decentralization. Buterin called for verifiable technologies and zero-knowledge proofs to shield personal data, and said companies should simply stop hoovering up information they don't need in the first place.

The comments land as AI tools spread across crypto products and attackers get faster at automating their own scams. Buterin's pitch: build systems that prove things without handing over everything, or watch privacy and security erode together.