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The founder of Avalanche, Emin Gün Sirer, has argued that artificial intelligence poses a nearer-term threat to blockchains such as XRP Ledger than any breakthrough against mainstream cryptography, according to U.today. Sirer said AI can surface security holes in blockchain software that were previously unknown, and that these flaws could be weaponised well before cryptography itself is broken.
U.today reported that Sirer has not identified any specific unpatched XRP Ledger vulnerability, nor demonstrated an AI-driven attack on the network. In a post on X, he wrote that AI would exploit system-level bugs long before ECDSA disappears — a paraphrase of a statement quoted by U.today. He added that anyone who assumes the under-scrutiny code behind Ripple, or any comparable high-value, low-use chain, contains zero-day bugs invisible to humans but easy for AI to spot is deluded.
Also readGemini Enables Native XRP Ledger Transfers for Singapore Users
Key facts
- Emin Gün Sirer is the founder of Avalanche and a prominent critic of the crypto industry’s focus on cryptographic risk rather than software risk.
- He said attackers could use AI-discovered bugs to steal billions long before AI breaks widely used cryptography.
- XRP Ledger developers released an emergency software update on Sept. 25, initially withholding the source code of the security fixes.
- The developers promised to publish that code along with a technical retrospective, according to U.today.
- Sirer did not point to a specific XRP Ledger vulnerability or show how AI attacked the network.
An old dispute with a new AI angle
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse previously took aim at Sirer after the Avalanche founder questioned Ripple’s traction with banks, U.today reported. The XRP Ledger’s security posture returned to the spotlight after developers shipped the Sept. 25 emergency update. They initially did not release the source code for the fixes, a decision that drew attention in a community that has long argued over how transparent the network’s core contributors should be. The technical retrospective was promised but, as of the reporting, had not been published.
Sirer’s warning sits inside a wider argument about which AI risk crypto should price in first. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently warned that AI-driven mathematical discovery could attack assumptions in lattice-based cryptography within two years. Ethereum researcher Justin Drake expressed concern that AI could one day attack ECDSA, the signing method used across most crypto transactions. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson dismissed Buterin’s worries as speculative and said the mathematics does not support such predictions. Sirer allows that cryptographic risk cannot be fully dismissed, but argues the industry should prioritise flaws that already exist in shipped code, libraries and wallets.
Also readXRP Ledger v3.3.0 Upgrade Targets Banks and Tokenized Assets With Five New Features
Why it matters
For XRP holders and the developers maintaining the ledger, the practical question is not whether ECDSA falls, but how quickly zero-day bugs in production software are found and patched. Public chains carry billions in value on code that has been audited by humans rather than exhaustively searched by machines, so any tool that widens the search makes disclosure timelines shorter and emergency patches more frequent. The dispute also matters reputationally: Sirer’s comments land as the XRP Ledger’s own security process is under scrutiny over an update issued without immediate source code.
What to watch
The release of the XRP Ledger’s technical retrospective and the source code behind the Sept. 25 fixes is the next concrete checkpoint; how much detail it discloses will shape the debate Sirer started. Whether any project publishes evidence of an AI-assisted vulnerability discovery will determine if his warning stays rhetorical or becomes a documented attack class.
Source: U.Today
