By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 26th, 2024
It’s not the first time Vitalik Buterin has shared his opinions on how AI could impact crypto.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has underscored the importance of artificial intelligence (AI) to address Ethereum’s biggest technical risk. Posting on X (formerly X), Vitalik noted that an AI-assisted formal code verification and bug finding could mitigate Ethereum’s greatest technical risks.
One application of AI that I am excited about is AI-assisted formal verification of code and bug finding.
Right now ethereum's biggest technical risk probably is bugs in code, and anything that could significantly change the game on that would be amazing.
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) February 19, 2024
For perspective, most of the recent exploits on Ethereum have been linked to bugs within cross-chain bridges. For example, one of the largest exploits in Ethereum, the Wormhole Brigde hack in 2022, led to a loss of over $320 million of crypto assets. Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis firm, reported that the hacker exploited a smart contract vulnerability within Wormhole Bridge.
Because cross-chain bridges are crucial infrastructures, especially within Ethereum, Chainalysis recommended rigorous code audits to mitigate such technical risks. Ethereum has gone through security improvements since the Wormhole incident. Nevertheless, Vitalik believes embracing AI in such an endeavor – code verification and bug finding, will be a game changer in addressing these technical risks and exploits.
It’s not the first time Vitalik Buterin has shared his opinions on how AI could impact crypto. In late January, he addressed potential AI use cases in crypto alongside their advantages and risks. Vitalik categorically noted that having an AI as an actor within a protocol had high viability. On the other hand, an AI-based interface to a protocol had potential but had certain risks.
Like in traditional markets, the AI narrative is strong in the crypto sector. In 2023, Sandra Leow, Nansen Analyst, told The Block they foresee AI agents becoming key blockchain users. She noted that the on-chain bots could help humans process transactions, amongst other things.
Ethereum (ETH) Price and AI Sector Surge
The overall AI crypto segment grew significantly following OpenAI’s Sora launch last week. In the 24 hours before press time, the AI crypto segment’s market capitalization was at $15.6 billion, up 10% per Coingecko data.
Ethereum price also posted a notable upside as it topped $2.9k for the first time since Q2 2022. On the weekly chart, the ETH/USDT pair on the Binance exchange made a nice weekly candlestick close above $2800 on February 18. The move above the crucial $2800 level makes $3.2k – $3.5k, a bearish order block on the weekly chart, the next possible bullish target.
