Anthropic's Mythos Is More Powerful Than the U.S. Government's AI. Does That Make Sense?

**Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos** (0:00)
Hi, all, and welcome to Dex in the City, where the wallets are cold and the takes are hot. Before we get going, remember, we're lawyers, but we're not your lawyers. So nothing you hear on Dex in the City is legal or financial advice, and it doesn't create an attorney-client relationship. So for the fine print, check unchainedcrypto.com. We're excited to get into it, but before we continue, here's a word from our sponsors.

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**Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos** (0:56)
We're back.
We are your hosts. We're ready to get into this. First, we have Jessi, Web3 prosecutor turned Web3 protector at Ribbit Capital and V from the SEC to Web3. And I'm your host, KK, Katherine, fluent in TradFi and conversant in deep tech over at StarkWare. So speaking of deep tech, it is the perfect time to talk about this. One of the words that has been talked about a lot in TradFi, not just crypto, is quantum, quantum computing. And last week, StarkWare's Chief Product Officer, who I must say, is not only brilliant, but a really nice guy, Aviv Levy, released a pretty groundbreaking paper that solves a problem or an area of stress for all of crypto. And the question and the problem really is, can quantum computing break Bitcoin? And first, let me square this and speak in English for a second.

**Jessi Brooks** (1:53)
I think the real question, KK, is what is quantum computing? And why does every time I learn about it, I feel like I understand it less?

**Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos** (2:03)
Yeah.
Great question, Jessi. So quantum computers are supercomputers. Very easy, very easily understandable. They can solve things a thousand times faster or don't quote me on that, way, way, way faster than regular computers, regular technology. So they change or promise to change a number of things fundamentally. And obviously, one of the big vulnerabilities of crypto, I guess you could call it a vulnerability. It wasn't really a vulnerability until we were talking about quantum, is that it relies on cryptography. And standard Bitcoin transactions rely on a type of cryptography called ECDSA. And I'm not even going to define that. We're not going to go to that level of depth. And that's basically based on the fact that it's really hard to solve certain math problems on elliptical curves. So it's based on the hardness. But a sufficiently powerful quantum computer running this mathematical thing called Shor's algorithm can solve these problems. Meaning, someone can forge Bitcoin signatures and steal all of the Bitcoin.
So this narrative has really proliferated lately. And it started to scare TradFi, frankly. I mean, I had coffee this past week with a very senior individual who is in TradFi and dabbles in crypto. And the first thing that this person asked me is, what do you think about quantum? Are you worried about Bitcoin? And it was really interesting because it followed some speculation that some of the downward price action we've seen on Bitcoin is due to quantum fears. And there was one notable, I believe it was a Jeff Rees analyst that recommended dumping all Bitcoin because of quantum fears. So there's been a lot of discussion is like, should we be afraid? And StarkWare CEO, who is one of the foremost cryptography researchers, his response has been like, no, because as quantum computing advances, there will be equal advancement in cryptography, right?
So a VU's paper proposed a really clever mechanism that effectively makes Bitcoin transactions quantum resistant. And how does it do that? Like, okay, it's really complicated, but it effectively hides a brilliant hash puzzle inside Bitcoin's existing rules. So you don't need to change Bitcoin. And rather than replacing the cryptographic tools that Bitcoin uses, you get security from hash functions. And this means it's basically finding a lock, hash functions that quantum computers can't break.
Because when you look at hash functions, it's kind of on the same page technically as any computer and quantum computers. Like quantum computers don't have an advantage.
So I'm going to stop and answer any questions from the two of you, but more so why do we care? Why does Dex and the city care? A, we care on behalf of crypto. I'm thrilled that Aviv is at the forefront of this kind of research. This is an answer to our fears. It is very computationally expensive. I'll mention that. But look, we can figure that out later, right? And the question that it raises for me as a lawyer is, and I know this will resonate with Jessi in particular, Bitcoin's entire legal claim to ownership really rests on the idea that only you, like you own the Bitcoin, you can sign a transaction with your private key. So all of a sudden, if we have an environment where a quantum computer lets somebody else orge that signature, it raises some really interesting intellectual questions, like whose Bitcoin is it? Like who's powering the computer? And the law really hasn't dealt with anything quantum yet. Like there's been post-quantum cryptography standards by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NIST, and regulators are starting to require quantum-resistant encryption for financial institutions. So that's actually a big growth area on regulation. But this has actually come from us.