Peter Schiff does not share the idea that the rise of artificial intelligence would automatically benefit bitcoin. In a publication released on August 23, the defender of gold instead presents AI as a competitor for capital, electricity and infrastructure. Its security warning remains to be demonstrated.
In brief
- Peter Schiff says artificial intelligence (AI) is not a bullish factor for bitcoin, contrary to what some proponents of the asset suggest.
- According to him, AI is a direct competitor to bitcoin for hot money, electricity and data center infrastructure.
- He also suggests that a sufficiently powerful AI could discover flaws in the code, cryptography or the Bitcoin network.
- At the time the tweet was published, bitcoin was trading around $76,900, with no reaction from the crypto market.
Peter Schiff identifies three threats to bitcoin
Peter Schiff is not his first statement on bitcoin. In his latest publication on flagship cryptocurrency to the powerful stock market theme of artificial intelligence. According to him, this association reverses reality. The fact is that AI would not be a bullish catalyst, but a threat.
His first argument concerns speculative capital. AI-related businesses and crypto assets can effectively target certain investors attracted to emerging technologies. However, Schiff does not provide any data to measure a sustainable transfer of bitcoin investments towards artificial intelligence.
Bitcoin proponents are trying to hook bitcoin onto the AI wagon, hoping that investors see it as part of the AI trade. They have it all wrong. AI is not favorable to bitcoin, it is a threat to it.
Energy competition seems more concrete. L’International Energy Agency predicts that global consumption of data centers will increase from 485 TWh in 2025 to around 950 TWh in 2030. That of infrastructures specialized in AI could triple over this period.
AI players and some bitcoin miners thus seek the same resources:
- abundant electricity;
- network connections;
- land;
- data centers.
This rivalry could increase costs or encourage some miners to convert their infrastructure to high-performance computing.
Can artificial intelligence really break bitcoin?
L’security argument from Peter Schiff remains the most spectacular. Advanced models could facilitate the discovery of vulnerabilities in:
- Bitcoin Core;
- wallets;
- crypto exchanges;
- some software connected to the network.
However, no specific flaw accompanies his warning.
Detecting a software bug does not mean breaking the cryptography of Bitcoin. Artificial intelligence is not a quantum computer. Furthermore, there is no evidence that current models can break SHA-256 or create valid signatures without the corresponding private keys.
That’s not all! There limit of 21 million BTC does not depend only on minors. Full nodes verify blocks and reject those that violate consensus rules. If some of the computing power left Bitcoin for AI, the mining difficulty would also be readjusted every 2,016 blocks.
AI could therefore strengthen the capabilities of attackers as well as those of developers responsible for auditing the code. At this stage, Peter Schiff mainly describes a scenario of economic and technological pressure, not a threat capable of immediately compromising bitcoin.
The counterargument: what if AI further threatened gold?
Schiff’s publication is already sparking debate within the crypto community. A speaker identified as QTradera bitcoin maximalist, notably turned the argument around. According to him, it is gold and not bitcoin that would be most exposed to advances in AI. His reasoning: advanced technologies could encourage an increase in the supply of extractable gold. Which would reduce its rarity and ultimately exert downward pressure on its price.
This exchange illustrates a key point of the debate: thebitcoin offer is fixed by a protocol while that of gold depends on geological and technological constraints which evolve with scientific progress. In theory, AI could therefore affect the relative scarcity of the two assets through radically different mechanisms.
For the moment, this controversy has no measurable impact on the BTC price. At the time Schiff’s statements were published, bitcoin was trading around $76,900 to $77,300. It shows a slight increase over the last 24 hours, with no movement directly attributable to the economist’s statement.
Regardless, it is important not to ignore Peter Schiff’s warning. In reality, it raises a fundamental question about bitcoin: can an asset whose security is based on algorithms remain invulnerable in the face of increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems? To meditate…
Maximize your Tremplin.io experience with our ‘Read to Earn’ program! For every article you read, earn points and access exclusive rewards. Sign up now and start earning benefits.
