More than 40 companies and organisations have signed an open letter asking AI developers to grant verified Bitcoin engineers early access to advanced models.

Open letter and rationale

The authors argue that restrictions on state-of-the-art AI models could disadvantage security researchers and delay detection of protocol vulnerabilities.

They warn that attackers may exploit less restricted open or locally run models to discover weaknesses prior to responsible disclosure by Bitcoin developers.

Proposal for early access

The initiative proposes controlled, pre-release access to the most capable models for vetted Bitcoin developers to identify and remediate potential security issues.

According to the letter, such access should be limited to trusted researchers and accompanied by safeguards to prevent misuse of capabilities.

Industry supporters

The effort lists supporters across the cryptocurrency ecosystem, including prominent exchanges, infrastructure providers and asset managers.

• Coinbase
• Strategy
• Block
• MARA
• Galaxy
• Bitwise
• Kraken
• Ledger
• Blockstream

Implications for security research

Proponents say earlier access would narrow the gap between offensive and defensive capabilities and accelerate vulnerability identification across the Bitcoin stack.

Critics of model restrictions argue that balanced access policies could enable coordinated, responsible research without broadly increasing operational risks.