Is ZK Quantum Resistant?
ETH Tbilisi 02 · December 2025 · 3:09
Lucid Samuel, founder of Kage Protocol, debates whether zero-knowledge proof systems can be considered quantum resistant. The short clip looks at which cryptographic assumptions would break under quantum computers. Recorded at ETH Tbilisi 02. It continues the ZK limits discussion from his main session at the same meetup.
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From ETH Tbilisi 02, hosted by ETHTbilisi.
Transcript
Well, great. Thank you so much for that answer. U my second question, like I said, is a bit out there, so mind this a little bit, but um I heard an interesting topic on a podcast recently where they were talking about, you know, of course, where we go next with AI and you've got the people doom thing about it, talking about things like, you know, and I'm basically summarizing this information, but you have an AI one day that's 160 IQ and it's like 2 years later it's 10x that, 10x that, right? you have AIS that are solving problems we didn't even know existed, you know, and coming with up with really unique solutions. And one of the the fears of crypto folks, um, crypto fanatics, cryptographic proofs, is if they're made by man, can't they be broken by a higher intelligence? And people have even
argued, do you think it's possible that one day AI will be able to crack Bitcoin? Right? Will AI be able to crack zero knowledge groups? What would be your your answer to something like that? >> Okay, great. So um I mean this is why my name is Lucid ZK. Okay. So ZK is backed by mathematics. Mathematics is logic. It's algebra. It's additions and multiplication and subtractions. So you can't crack ZK basically or with AI with I intelligence. It's literally math. But because they use computations and it is um probably inscribed on the blockchain
or all of those factors um quantum could basically get to the stage where it could deppt but then literally almost everybody is already preparing for postquantum cryptography. So most applications Ethereum is basically working on a 4-year road map with Lin Ethereum to make Ethereum um postquantum proof. So uh yeah quantum is still light years away and then going back to your topic on AI. AI basically I mean it's very very intelligent but then we are not talking about developers uh code we're talking about mathematics.
>> So yeah it's a little bit of issue there. So what I think another way I can uh translate your question just for audience knowledge would be um because your public because the blockchain is currently transparent in public with AI surveillance has even tripled x or 5x. So right now even if you try to use mixers or you try to generate multiple addresses you still make certain mistakes and um because of AI's intelligence you could literally map out all your transactions together faster than you know a normal researcher normal auditor be able to do with yeah manually. So it means surveillance level
as like you know 10x which is why you need privacy like what's up. So >> okay so basically too to come back to like the mathematics answers just like no matter how smart AI gets it can't make 2 plus two equal five right [laughter] >> that was great. Thank you so much. >> You're welcome. You're welcome. Hope very