Ripple Ex-CTO Says Cheating Turns Bitcoin Miners’ ASICs Into Space Heaters

Ripple ex-CTO David Schwartz argued that Bitcoin miners who attempt a double spend would face a strong economic deterrent: economic nodes such as exchanges, custodians, wallets, and payment firms could fork the chain and change the mining algorithm. That would render specialized ASIC mining hardware effectively worthless as it would only consume power and generate heat, not revenue. The article frames this as a defense of Bitcoin’s incentive structure, but notes the broader mining backdrop is weakening, with hash rate falling for a record nine months as miners pivot to AI and mining difficulty recently turning negative. It also highlights ongoing governance and security debates around Bitcoin, including recent fork disputes and warnings from critics that declining miner rewards could increase attack risk. Overall, the piece is a technology and security commentary on Bitcoin’s network resilience rather than a price-focused catalyst.