Vitalik: Ethereum to Become Key Part of 'Security Core,' AI-Assisted Formal Verification Can Enhance Code Security

BlockBeats News, May 19th. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin published an in-depth analysis of the current state and future prospects of Formal Verification technology. He believes that combining Formal Verification with AI will become the "ultimate form of software development" and a key path to safeguarding network security in the face of powerful AI adversaries. Vitalik points out that the core of Formal Verification is to transform the correctness of code into a mathematical theorem that can be automatically verified by computers, thus ensuring software security through mathematical proofs rather than relying on traditional testing or manual audits. He believes this paradigm is particularly suitable for scenarios where the "goal is much simpler than the implementation," such as quantum-resistant signatures, STARK proof systems, Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus algorithms, and ZK-EVM, which are precisely the core technological components of Ethereum's next-stage upgrade.

However, Vitalik also acknowledges that Formal Verification is not a panacea. Common failure modes include: verifying only part of the code and overlooking critical defects, inherent loopholes in security specifications, and side-channel attacks at the software-hardware boundary that are difficult to capture in existing proof models. He emphasizes that "provable correctness" fundamentally verifies the intrinsic consistency between different intent expressions, rather than the absolute correctness against human real intent.

Regarding the network security challenges posed by AI, Vitalik is cautiously optimistic. He believes that AI-assisted Formal Verification will drive the evolution of software architecture towards a pattern of "secure core and insecure periphery": edge components run in sandboxes with minimal permissions, while the secure core is continuously strengthened through formal methods, bearing the highest level of trust burden in the process of societal digitalization. Ethereum will become a crucial part of this secure core.