Could AI Threaten Bitcoin? Peter Schiff Sounds the Alarm

Peter Schiff does not share the idea that the rise of artificial intelligence would automatically benefit bitcoin. In a post published on August 23, the gold advocate rather presents AI as a competitor for capital, electricity, and infrastructure. His security warning remains to be demonstrated.

Peter Schiff identifies three threats to bitcoin

Peter Schiff is no stranger to his first statement on bitcoin. In his latest post on X, he accuses bitcoin supporters of trying to tie the 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 companies and crypto assets can indeed target certain investors attracted to emerging technologies. However, Schiff provides no data to measure a lasting transfer of bitcoin investments to artificial intelligence.

Bitcoin promoters try to hitch bitcoin to the AI bandwagon, hoping investors will consider it part of the AI trade. They are completely wrong. AI is not bullish for bitcoin, it is a threat to it.

Energy competition seems more concrete. The International Energy Agency predicts that global data center consumption will rise from 485 TWh in 2025 to around 950 TWh in 2030. Consumption of AI-specialized infrastructure could triple during 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 towards high-performance computing.

Can artificial intelligence really break bitcoin?

Peter Schiff’s security argument remains the most spectacular. Advanced models could facilitate discovering vulnerabilities in:

• Bitcoin Core;
• wallets;
• crypto exchanges;
• certain software connected to the network.

However, no specific flaw accompanies his warning.

Detecting a software bug does not mean breaking Bitcoin’s cryptography. Artificial intelligence is not a quantum computer. Moreover, no element demonstrates that current models can break SHA-256 or create valid signatures without the corresponding private keys.

That’s not all! The 21 million BTC cap does not depend solely on miners. Full nodes verify blocks and reject those that break consensus rules. If part of the computing power left Bitcoin for AI, the mining difficulty would also readjust every 2,016 blocks.

AI could therefore enhance the capabilities of attackers as well as those of developers auditing the code. At this stage, Peter Schiff mostly describes a scenario of economic and technological pressure, not a threat capable of immediately compromising bitcoin.

The counter-argument: what if AI threatened gold more?

Schiff’s post already sparks debates within the crypto community. A participant identified as Q Trader, a bitcoin maximalist, notably turned the argument around. According to him, it is gold, not bitcoin, that would be most exposed to AI advances. His reasoning: advanced technologies could promote an increase in the extractable gold supply. This would reduce its scarcity and eventually exert downward pressure on its price.

This exchange illustrates a key point in the debate: the bitcoin supply is fixed by a protocol whereas gold’s supply depends on geological and technological constraints that evolve with scientific progress. In theory, AI could therefore affect the relative scarcity of the two assets through radically different mechanisms.

For now, this controversy has no measurable impact on the BTC price. At the time of Schiff’s statements, bitcoin was trading around $76,900 to $77,300. It shows a slight increase over the last 24 hours, without any movement directly attributable to the economist’s statement.

In any case, it is important not to ignore Peter Schiff’s alert. In reality, it raises a fundamental question about bitcoin: can an asset whose security relies on algorithms remain invulnerable against increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems? Food for thought…

Ariela R.

My name is Ariela, and I am 31 years old. I have been working in the field of web writing for 7 years now. I only discovered trading and cryptocurrency a few years ago, but it is a universe that greatly interests me. The topics covered on the platform allow me to learn more. A singer in my spare time, I also cultivate a great passion for music and reading (and animals!)

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The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and should not be taken as investment advice. Do your own research before taking any investment decisions.