{"id":46875,"date":"2026-07-01T19:59:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T19:59:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875"},"modified":"2026-07-01T19:59:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T19:59:34","slug":"ais-bitcoin-moment-why-the-open-source-fight-looks-like-crypto-back-in-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875","title":{"rendered":"AI\u2019s Bitcoin Moment: Why the Open-Source Fight Looks Like Crypto Back in 2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine<\/a>
\n
\nAI\u2019s Bitcoin Moment: Why the Open-Source Fight Looks Like Crypto Back in 2014<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

A new installment of Chain of Thought<\/em>, the Brownstone Research newsletter<\/a> written by Ben Lilly, argues that the battle over open-source artificial intelligence<\/a> is following the same path Bitcoin walked a decade ago, and that investors who recognize the pattern stand to profit.<\/p>\n

The note opens with testimony that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei gave to Congress in July 2023. Amodei acknowledged that open source is \u201ca good thing\u201d in most scientific fields and that the risks of open models released so far were \u201crelatively limited,\u201d but he warned that the scaling of open-source models was heading \u201cdown a very dangerous path.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lilly reads the subtext plainly: if open models are dangerous, then the closed models sold by companies like Anthropic are the safe choice \u2014 and the policy that follows is to restrict the open and elevate the closed.<\/p>\n

Bitcoin\u2019s early skeptics mirror what AI is facing<\/h2>\n

That framing is one digital-asset investors know well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He revisits Bitcoin\u2019s early skeptics, from Rep. Jared Polis buying the first Bitcoin on Capitol Hill in 2014 to Sen. Joe Manchin\u2019s call to ban a \u201cdangerous currency,\u201d through the 2023 accusations that regulators tried to cut crypto off from the banking system in what critics dubbed \u201cOperation Choke Point 2.0.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The industry survived, he notes, and Washington is now moving toward clearer rules through the passed<\/a> GENIUS Act and the pending<\/a> CLARITY Act.<\/p>\n

Decentralized AI, which Lilly calls \u201cDeAI,\u201d is having that same fight now. He points to recent developments as evidence the walls are going up: a U.S. export ban on Anthropic\u2019s latest release, which he says will push the company toward permissioned access that verifies a user\u2019s identity before granting a model, and OpenAI\u2019s decision to restrict its GPT-5.6 rollout to trusted partners.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He expects identity requirements to spread. \u201cIt\u2019s for your protection, you see,\u201d he writes. \u201cIt always is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The note leans on a national-security anecdote to explain the fear driving these moves. Lilly cites NSA chief Joshua Rudd, by way of Sen. Mark Warner, describing how Anthropic\u2019s \u201cMythos\u201d model broke into \u201calmost all of our classified system, not in weeks, but in hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet open source is closing the gap, according to the piece. Lilly says the recent GLM-5.2 scored on par with Anthropic\u2019s Sonnet 4.6 from February, leaving open models roughly three to four months behind the frontier, and predicts an open rival to Mythos and GPT-5.6 by fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He argues the bigger unlock is decentralized training on peer-to-peer networks that mirror Bitcoin and Ethereum \u2014 swapping compute-for-network-security for compute-for-model-training. Distributed training, he notes, has grown from sub-1-billion parameters to 100 billion in two years.<\/p>\n

He names three early projects \u2014 Dark Bloom, which enables low-cost private inference on idle Macs; c0mpute, a decentralized inference network; and Pluralis, which trains AI across distributed consumer GPUs \u2014 and expects more to launch tokens and reward users for contributing compute.<\/p>\n

The note ends with the notion that governments will try to ban open models and they will fail. For him, investing in the space \u201cwill be like buying Bitcoin in 2014, back when it was still \u2018dangerous.’\u201d<\/p>\n

This post AI\u2019s Bitcoin Moment: Why the Open-Source Fight Looks Like Crypto Back in 2014<\/a> first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine<\/a> and is written by Micah Zimmerman<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin Magazine AI\u2019s Bitcoin Moment: Why the Open-Source Fight Looks Like Crypto Back in 2014 A new installment of Chain of Thought, the Brownstone Research newsletter written by Ben Lilly, argues that the battle over open-source artificial intelligence is following the same path Bitcoin walked a decade ago, and that investors who recognize the pattern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bitcoin"],"yoast_head":"\nAI\u2019s Bitcoin Moment: Why the Open-Source Fight Looks Like Crypto Back in 2014 - Cryptomag<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"AI\u2019s Bitcoin Moment: Why the Open-Source Fight Looks Like Crypto Back in 2014 - Cryptomag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bitcoin Magazine AI\u2019s Bitcoin Moment: Why the Open-Source Fight Looks Like Crypto Back in 2014 A new installment of Chain of Thought, the Brownstone Research newsletter written by Ben Lilly, argues that the battle over open-source artificial intelligence is following the same path Bitcoin walked a decade ago, and that investors who recognize the pattern […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cryptomag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-01T19:59:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AIs-Bitcoin-Moment-Why-the-Open-Source-Fight-Looks-Like-Crypto-Back-in-2014.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Crypto Magazine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cryptomagz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cryptomagz\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Crypto Magazine\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=46875#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=46875\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Crypto Magazine\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f749cd846c4f13ef717c12a20ce9d040\"},\"headline\":\"AI\u2019s Bitcoin Moment: Why the Open-Source Fight Looks Like Crypto Back in 2014\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-01T19:59:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=46875\"},\"wordCount\":571,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=46875#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/AIs-Bitcoin-Moment-Why-the-Open-Source-Fight-Looks-Like-Crypto-Back-in-2014-lQv8uM.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Bitcoin\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=46875\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=46875\",\"name\":\"AI\u2019s Bitcoin Moment: Why the Open-Source Fight Looks Like Crypto Back in 2014 - Cryptomag\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=46875#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=46875#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/AIs-Bitcoin-Moment-Why-the-Open-Source-Fight-Looks-Like-Crypto-Back-in-2014-lQv8uM.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-01T19:59:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f749cd846c4f13ef717c12a20ce9d040\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=46875#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=46875\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=46875#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/AIs-Bitcoin-Moment-Why-the-Open-Source-Fight-Looks-Like-Crypto-Back-in-2014-lQv8uM.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/AIs-Bitcoin-Moment-Why-the-Open-Source-Fight-Looks-Like-Crypto-Back-in-2014-lQv8uM.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1080},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?p=46875#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"AI\u2019s Bitcoin Moment: Why the Open-Source Fight Looks Like Crypto Back in 2014\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/\",\"name\":\"Cryptomag\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f749cd846c4f13ef717c12a20ce9d040\",\"name\":\"Crypto Magazine\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2c24e7a3322cdb9140c7dde381c870ae2c527e0dc5af67ed7a7db042bb2e1d14?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2c24e7a3322cdb9140c7dde381c870ae2c527e0dc5af67ed7a7db042bb2e1d14?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2c24e7a3322cdb9140c7dde381c870ae2c527e0dc5af67ed7a7db042bb2e1d14?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Crypto Magazine\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/cryptomagz\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cryptomag.finance\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"AI\u2019s Bitcoin Moment: Why the Open-Source Fight Looks Like Crypto Back in 2014 - Cryptomag","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"AI\u2019s Bitcoin Moment: Why the Open-Source Fight Looks Like Crypto Back in 2014 - Cryptomag","og_description":"Bitcoin Magazine AI\u2019s Bitcoin Moment: Why the Open-Source Fight Looks Like Crypto Back in 2014 A new installment of Chain of Thought, the Brownstone Research newsletter written by Ben Lilly, argues that the battle over open-source artificial intelligence is following the same path Bitcoin walked a decade ago, and that investors who recognize the pattern […]","og_url":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875","og_site_name":"Cryptomag","article_published_time":"2026-07-01T19:59:34+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AIs-Bitcoin-Moment-Why-the-Open-Source-Fight-Looks-Like-Crypto-Back-in-2014.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Crypto Magazine","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cryptomagz","twitter_site":"@cryptomagz","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Crypto Magazine","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875"},"author":{"name":"Crypto Magazine","@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/#\/schema\/person\/f749cd846c4f13ef717c12a20ce9d040"},"headline":"AI\u2019s Bitcoin Moment: Why the Open-Source Fight Looks Like Crypto Back in 2014","datePublished":"2026-07-01T19:59:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875"},"wordCount":571,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/wp-content\/uploads\/AIs-Bitcoin-Moment-Why-the-Open-Source-Fight-Looks-Like-Crypto-Back-in-2014-lQv8uM.jpg","articleSection":["Bitcoin"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875","url":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875","name":"AI\u2019s Bitcoin Moment: Why the Open-Source Fight Looks Like Crypto Back in 2014 - Cryptomag","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/wp-content\/uploads\/AIs-Bitcoin-Moment-Why-the-Open-Source-Fight-Looks-Like-Crypto-Back-in-2014-lQv8uM.jpg","datePublished":"2026-07-01T19:59:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/#\/schema\/person\/f749cd846c4f13ef717c12a20ce9d040"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/wp-content\/uploads\/AIs-Bitcoin-Moment-Why-the-Open-Source-Fight-Looks-Like-Crypto-Back-in-2014-lQv8uM.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/wp-content\/uploads\/AIs-Bitcoin-Moment-Why-the-Open-Source-Fight-Looks-Like-Crypto-Back-in-2014-lQv8uM.jpg","width":1920,"height":1080},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?p=46875#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"AI\u2019s Bitcoin Moment: Why the Open-Source Fight Looks Like Crypto Back in 2014"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/#website","url":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/","name":"Cryptomag","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/#\/schema\/person\/f749cd846c4f13ef717c12a20ce9d040","name":"Crypto Magazine","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c24e7a3322cdb9140c7dde381c870ae2c527e0dc5af67ed7a7db042bb2e1d14?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c24e7a3322cdb9140c7dde381c870ae2c527e0dc5af67ed7a7db042bb2e1d14?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2c24e7a3322cdb9140c7dde381c870ae2c527e0dc5af67ed7a7db042bb2e1d14?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Crypto Magazine"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/cryptomag.finance","https:\/\/x.com\/cryptomagz"],"url":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptomag.finance\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}