Woofun AI reports that Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, has declared traditional code review methods obsolete in the face of escalating AI-powered hacking threats targeting blockchain ecosystems.

The escalation timeline points to October of last year as the pivotal moment when AI-driven attacks intensified significantly, Woofun AI notes. This surge marked a distinct turning point in the cybersecurity landscape, where the sophistication and speed of automated adversaries began to systematically outpace manual code audits. These traditional audits are increasingly viewed as slow, expensive, and inherently prone to human error, rendering them insufficient against modern threats.

Polosukhin argues that the industry must pivot toward formal verification, a mathematical approach designed to prove that code behaves exactly as intended. While historically costly and computationally intensive, this method offers a level of certainty that traditional testing cannot match.

Woofun AI data shows that AI can now generate thousands of attack vectors in seconds, probing smart contracts and decentralized applications for vulnerabilities faster than any human team can respond, thereby closing the window for relying solely on human reviewers.

To counter this, Polosukhin calls for integrating AI tools to make formal verification faster and cheaper, effectively using the same technology that powers attacks to strengthen defenses. This approach could mathematically guarantee that code is secure before deployment, reducing the risk of exploits that have cost the crypto industry billions. For blockchain developers, this shift necessitates adopting new tooling and workflows that prioritize provable security over speed.

For users and investors, this transition signals a growing maturity in the industry’s approach to risk management. Projects that fail to implement robust verification methods may face increasing scrutiny from both regulators and the market, aligning with a broader cybersecurity trend where AI serves as both a threat vector and a defensive tool. As AI-powered hacking becomes more prevalent, the blockchain industry faces a critical inflection point. The challenge now lies in making these advanced verification methods accessible and cost-effective for developers across the ecosystem.