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We are in the midst of a historic transition from traditional public-key algorithms based on EC and RSA to post-quantum algorithms based on novel problems.

Green establishes the current moment as a historic cryptographic transition from EC/RSA to post-quantum standards like HAWK. ✦ AI generated

Matthew Green · Simon Willison's Weblog · 2026-07-29 · original ↗

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Right now we're in the midst of a historic transition from traditional public-key algorithms based on EC-based cryptography and RSA, moving over to new post-quantum algorithms based on novel problems. This is why there are so many standards like HAWK being considered.

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✳ EC-based cryptography ✳ HAWK ✳ post-quantum algorithms ✳ RSA

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provides context → In the best case, AI cryptanalysis gives us real confidence in the problems we have identified and makes the cryptanalysis literature considerably more robust.Matthew Green · Simon Willison's Weblog explains mechanism → This could not be a better time for AI to get good at cryptanalysis, unless AI succeeds in undermining the hard problems themselves or we live in Impagliazzo's Minicrypt.Matthew Green · Simon Willison's Weblog