Key facts
- Bitcoin developers are using Chinese open-source AI models due to restrictions on U.S. models like OpenAI's.
- U.S. AI models have reportedly blocked legitimate cybersecurity research and code review.
- Chinese models like Kimi K3 have successfully identified and helped patch vulnerabilities.
- A Bitcoin Red Team effort scanned 501 open-source projects, identifying 7,958 findings, with 1,280 rated high or critical severity.
- The majority of computational resources were spent on Chinese open-weight models.
Bitcoin developers are increasingly turning to Chinese open-source AI models for cybersecurity research, citing significant restrictions on U.S. frontier AI systems from companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. These U.S. models have reportedly blocked legitimate security work, forcing researchers to seek alternatives to protect critical Bitcoin infrastructure.
Pseudonymous developer and Red Team lead Calle stated that the team is using Chinese AI models, including Kimi K3 from Moonshot AI and GLM 5.2 from Z.ai, to scan nearly the entire Bitcoin open-source ecosystem for security flaws. Calle noted a significant performance difference compared to U.S. models, which have imposed restrictions on security research. He described the situation as a "massive collision between decades of human open source slop against 2 weeks of Kimi K3," adding, "Everything is broken, Bitcoin is burning."
The Bitcoin Red Team, combining AI tools with human review, has scanned 501 projects and identified 7,958 findings, with 1,280 rated high or critical severity. The majority of computational resources were spent on Chinese open-weight models. Calle indicated that the low-hanging fruit of security review is done and warned against relying on unmaintained projects, emphasizing the need for AI audit pipelines.
Other organizations are also facing similar issues. Hugging Face used China's GLM 5.2 to investigate a breach after OpenAI models were hacked into its systems and U.S. commercial models refused to analyze the attack logs. Despite the challenges, Calle believes the audits are making Bitcoin's software stronger, stating, "Sometimes old things need to burn so new things can grow on healthy soil."