TLDR
Bitcoin Red Team founder Rob Hamilton says OpenAI restricted his access to its Trust and Cyber tools.
He is switching back to Chinese open-source AI models to continue his research.
Bitcoin Red Team has found 1,288 critical and high-level vulnerabilities as of Saturday.
The group’s work sped up after the Coldcard hardware wallet hack, which saw over $100 million in Bitcoin stolen.
Crypto executives say many firms still lack access to the most capable AI security tools.
Rob Hamilton, founder of Bitcoin Red Team and CEO of AnchorWatch, says he lost access to OpenAI’s security tools while researching Bitcoin code. He shared the news in a post on X on Tuesday.
Hamilton said he began using OpenAI’s Trust and Cyber capabilities for his research on Saturday. His access was cut off the very next morning.
He said the restriction is forcing him to return to open-source AI models built in China. Hamilton called the situation painful given his background.
“It absolutely guts me as a patriotic American to have to do this,” he wrote, “but I will be going back to using Chinese open source models to conduct my research to protect Bitcoin infrastructure.”
What Is Bitcoin Red Team?
Bitcoin Red Team is a group of volunteers who use AI tools alongside human review to scan open-source Bitcoin repositories. Their goal is to catch security flaws before bad actors can exploit them.
As of Saturday, the group had found 1,288 critical and high-level vulnerabilities across the Bitcoin ecosystem.
The team’s efforts picked up speed following the Coldcard hardware wallet hack. That attack has resulted in over $100 million in Bitcoin being stolen.
Hamilton said losing access now stops him from finishing important checks. He wants to confirm that recent code changes actually fixed the problems they were meant to fix.
“I am now prevented from being able to continue the investigation,” he said, “as well as understand if there are other issues that have yet to be discovered.”
Limited Access to Powerful AI Tools
Last month, crypto executives told Cointelegraph that many of the industry’s biggest companies still cannot get access to the newest and most powerful AI models. Only a small number of firms have managed to gain that access so far.
Hamilton argues this creates an uneven playing field. He says the people trying to prevent attacks are being left without the tools they need.
“Black hats will not hit these issues. The white hats will,” he said. “We’ve hit a local minima in policy.”
He added that people who ignore the rules can still use unrestricted AI systems freely. Meanwhile, researchers trying to act responsibly are blocked from the same technology.
Hamilton framed this as a mismatch between policy and practice. Those doing harm reduction work, he said, are the ones being sidelined.
For now, Bitcoin Red Team’s search for vulnerabilities continues. Hamilton says the group will keep working, using whatever AI tools remain available to them, as the count of confirmed flaws keeps climbing.
