I’ve been thinking lately about something that wasn’t really on anyone’s radar when Bitcoin was first created:

Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly powerful, and we're reaching a point where it might soon analyze the entire Bitcoin blockchain—every transaction, every address—almost instantly and effortlessly.

In the past, if someone wanted to trace transactions, investigate suspicious behavior, or deanonymize addresses, it required huge human effort and resources. But AI could potentially change all of this, making real-time surveillance incredibly easy.

This possibility raises some uncomfortable questions:

• Could AI-driven analysis threaten Bitcoin’s decentralization by making surveillance cheap, fast, and easy?
• Is there a risk of creating a kind of "Big Brother" scenario, even if the Bitcoin network itself remains decentralized?
• Has the Bitcoin community considered how to handle a future where AI can effortlessly monitor the entire network? Or is this outcome just inevitable?

I recently read about an MIT and IBM model trained on millions of Bitcoin transactions, already being used to quickly identify suspicious patterns. It got me wondering if we’re adequately prepared for what’s coming.

Has anyone else here been thinking about this? Are there discussions happening about potential safeguards—or is this just something we'll have to live with?

I'd really like to hear your thoughts on this.

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P.D.: This post was partially written with the help of GPT-4.5.