Legendary Hacker Jokes That None of Your Crypto Assets Are 'Safe'

Legendary hacker George Hotz has facetiously  stated that none of your crypto assets are actually "safe." 

The sensational claim comes after OpenAI, the leading artificial intelligence company, released its new o3 model that has supposedly found a polynomial time factoring algorithm.

The algorithm would make it possible to factorize large numbers, thus compromising the security of many cryptographic systems. However, it is extremely unlikely that crypto security would be broken without large-scale quantum computing. In fact, this would certainly qualify as the invention of the century.

Hotz attached an Axios article, which says that computer science majors are becoming increasingly concerned about the possibility of being replaced by AI due to the o3 model showcasing extremely impressive programming abilities that already exceed those of the vast majority of developers. 

Is this just a joke? 

Hotz, who is known for founding self-driving car startup Comma.ai, rose to prominence at a young age after unlocking Apple's iPhones and hacking PlayStation 3. 

That said, many cryptocurrency enthusiasts have downplayed Hotz's warning since it is likely to be a joke.  

Blockstream CEO Adam Back has noted that the claim about the cryptography-compromising algorithm is "highly dubious." Many have noted that the Axios article does not actually mention anything about the algorithm.

Back has suggested that this could likely be simply "a misunderstood joke."

Some have suggested that the joke could be aimed at sensational headlines surrounding AI development.