Bitcoin Red Team Founder Forced to Turn to Chinese AI After OpenAI Access Restrictions
Key Takeaways
- •AnchorWatch CEO Rob Hamilton had his OpenAI access restricted shortly after he started using its Trust and Cyber capabilities for Bitcoin security research.
- •Hamilton plans to resume his codebase analysis using open-source Chinese AI models like DeepSeek and Alibaba's Qwen.
- •Bitcoin Red Team is a volunteer organization that leverages AI to scan open-source repositories for vulnerabilities, intensifying efforts after the $100 million Coldcard wallet hack.
- •Hamilton argues that current AI access policies hinder white-hat cybersecurity defenders while malicious actors operate without such restrictions.
Bitcoin Red Team Founder Forced to Turn to Chinese AI After OpenAI Access Restrictions
A Bitcoin security researcher says he has been compelled to return to open-source Chinese AI models after OpenAI restricted his access, preventing him from continuing to analyze codebases. The situation underscores a broader concern that the most advanced AI tools are not being made readily available to cybersecurity defenders — even as openly available Chinese models such as DeepSeek and Alibaba's Qwen series remain accessible to researchers worldwide.
In an X post on Tuesday, AnchorWatch CEO Rob Hamilton said he had begun integrating OpenAI's Trust & Cyber capabilities into his Bitcoin Red Team work on Saturday, only to discover his access had been restricted the following morning. OpenAI launched its Trust & Cyber program to grant cybersecurity professionals specialized access to its models for threat detection and defense, making the access restriction on a active vulnerability researcher notable.
"It absolutely guts me as a patriotic American to have to do this, but I will be going back to using Chinese open source models to conduct my research to protect Bitcoin infrastructure," Hamilton said.
Bitcoin Red Team, a volunteer organization, has been leveraging AI tools combined with human review to scan hundreds of open-source Bitcoin-related repositories for vulnerabilities. These efforts intensified following the Coldcard hardware wallet hack, which resulted in more than $100 million in Bitcoin stolen. The episode highlighted how quickly undisclosed vulnerabilities in widely used Bitcoin hardware and software can translate into major losses, and placed a premium on automated code analysis tools capable of processing large codebases at scale.
Last month, crypto executives told Cointelegraph that many of the industry's largest players are still seeking access to powerful new AI models to strengthen their code against attacks, with only a select few having obtained it so far.
"I am now prevented from being able to continue the investigation in a further effort to make sure their code changes are sufficient, as well as understand if there are other issues that have yet to be discovered," Hamilton explained.
"Black hats will not hit these issues. The white hats will. We've hit a local minima in policy," Hamilton stated. "Intelligence is unrestricted for those who don't follow rules, and those who engage in harm reduction are left on the sidelines."
