Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson said Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is talking down rival encryption to protect his own research. He accused Buterin of “bag-holding too much hash-based crypto research” and being unable to back out.
The dispute goes beyond a feud between two founders. It touches how major blockchains plan to shield wallets from future quantum computers.
Why Hoskinson Says Vitalik Buterin Is Protecting His Own Bet
Buterin recently warned that AI-driven math breakthroughs could weaken lattice-based encryption. That is one of two main ways to protect wallets from quantum attacks.
His post favors the other option, hash-based designs, which Ethereum’s long-term plan already uses.
Hoskinson argued that Vitalik Buterin is too invested in that path to change course. In trading slang, a bag holder is stuck with an asset nobody wants to buy. Still, Hoskinson did not reject hash-based tools outright. He said they fit some uses but remain an “algebraic dead end” for more advanced features.
He also framed the warning as part of a pattern. In his view, Buterin’s posts have pulled developers away from good research before.
“He writes these damn posts that convince lots of engineers to abandon incredibly important research, and then we have to stumble back to it after years of false starts: Plasma, Ethereum 2.0, Casper, Accounts, etc etc etc. Now we are going to attack Lattices.”
Charles Hoskinson on X
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Which Chains Gain if Lattices Hold Up?
Solana developers picked a lattice-based scheme for their quantum upgrade. Algorand already uses the same approach for parts of its network.
Hoskinson defended that choice against Vitalik Buterin’s doubts. He said researchers have attacked lattices for 40 years. Older hash tools, by contrast, have already fallen.
He also dismissed Buterin’s call for 10 times bigger keys as “numerology.” Hoskinson also argued that a vague AI threat can never be disproven. In his view, every year without a break simply becomes “not yet.”
The rivalry is not new. Earlier, Hoskinson claimed Ethereum was copying Cardano’s core design.
Cardano, meanwhile, has its own timeline in mind. Hoskinson recently put the odds of a quantum threat before 2033 above 50%.
As a result, the Hoskinson and Vitalik Buterin clash could shape which encryption major chains trust before quantum machines arrive.
