TL;DR:
- Emin Gün Sirer, founder of Avalanche, stated on social media that advanced artificial intelligence could uncover zero-day software bugs across blockchains such as the XRP Ledger.
- XRP Ledger developers rolled out an emergency security patch on September 25, 2026, without immediately disclosing the underlying source code of the fixes.
- The technical argument emerges amid ongoing debates among industry leaders, including Vitalik Buterin and Charles Hoskinson, regarding cryptographic resilience against advanced computing models.
This Friday, October 9, Emin Gün Sirer, founder of Avalanche, argued that advanced artificial intelligence tools could uncover critical vulnerabilities in XRP Ledger and other large-cap blockchain networks.
The computer scientist shared his perspective via his account on X. He stated that machine learning models possess the capability to identify system-level software bugs long before conventional cryptography is ever compromised.
The debate on the threat AI poses for crypto is mostly just wankery.
We will see AI exploit systems-level bugs far before ECDSA falls. We will see AI discover bugs in systems code, libraries and wallets that enable attackers to steal billions of dollars long before we have to…
— Emin Gün Sirer🔺⚔️ (@el33th4xor) October 9, 2026
Debates over the longevity of digital signature algorithms have grown increasingly common across the digital asset space. Emin Gün Sirer contends that technical scrutiny often fixates on hypothetical mathematical breakthroughs, while overlooking operational flaws embedded within software libraries and digital wallets.
The specialist noted that protocols securing high total value locked with limited third-party audits face heightened exposure to automated scanning tools. According to the perspective shared by the Avalanche founder, malicious actors could leverage generative models to surface zero-day vulnerabilities that remain difficult for human developers to spot.
The Software Security vs. Cryptography Debate
Sirer’s remarks did not detail specific unpatched flaws within the current source code of Ripple’s associated network. Nor were technical logs provided demonstrating active exploits executed by autonomous software agents targeting the XRP Ledger infrastructure.
The broader discussion regarding network resilience coincides with recent operational steps taken by its technical community. Developers behind the XRP Ledger deployed an emergency update on September 25, 2026, to address an internal incident.
During that rollout, the development team temporarily withheld public release of the underlying code fixes. Official project documentation stated that comprehensive details of the patch would be shared through a formal post-mortem once validator nodes successfully completed the mandatory upgrade.
Sirer’s warnings join an expanding dialogue among blockchain developers concerning AI-driven security challenges. According to documented remarks by Vitalik Buterin, the Ethereum co-founder projected that algorithmic computational breakthroughs could challenge certain assumptions underpinning lattice-based cryptography within an estimated two-year horizon.
In contrast, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson characterized those concerns as speculative hypotheses lacking verifiable empirical backing. Meanwhile, core researchers such as Justin Drake have previously highlighted long-term risks surrounding the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA).
Compared to these distant mathematical projections, technical observations raised by Sirer suggest that code-level vulnerabilities represent a far more immediate threat than cryptographic obsolescence. For the XRP Ledger validator ecosystem, the next verifiable milestone remains the publication of the developers’ technical post-mortem report to evaluate the full scope of the patches deployed in late September.
