Bitcoin's core software may be riddled with far more serious vulnerabilities than previously understood, according to a volunteer group that has been using artificial intelligence to comb through the network's codebases. The team reports uncovering 85 critical bugs and describes the security landscape as "extremely bad."
An AI-Powered Bug Hunt
A group of volunteers has been running AI models against bitcoin's software repositories in an effort to identify flaws that traditional review methods might miss. The results, according to the team, have been alarming in both their volume and severity.
The researchers say the pace of discovery is roughly one critical bug per hour for each person involved in the effort. That rate suggests the codebases harbor a deep reservoir of undiscovered issues, raising fresh questions about the robustness of the infrastructure underpinning the world's largest cryptocurrency.
One critical bug per hour, per person — a discovery rate that few expected from software this heavily scrutinized.
The Cost of Finding Flaws
Running AI models at this scale is not cheap. The group estimates it is spending around $10,000 a day on compute to power its automated analysis, a figure that underscores both the intensity of the search and the resources required to keep it going.
The 85 critical bugs flagged so far point to a security situation the team characterizes as "extremely bad." Critical vulnerabilities in bitcoin's software could, in theory, expose the network or its users to exploitation if left unaddressed.
Key details from the effort include:
- Roughly one critical bug identified per hour per participant
- An estimated $10,000 per day spent on computing resources
- A total of 85 critical bugs flagged across bitcoin codebases
The findings highlight the growing role of AI in software security auditing, where automated tools can scan vast amounts of code far faster than human reviewers. For a decentralized network that relies heavily on volunteer developers, the disclosures may prompt renewed attention to how bitcoin's foundational code is maintained and secured.