Artificial intelligence (AI) could alter global monetary dynamics by injecting a healthy dose of inflation, according to cryptographer Nick Szabo. In his opinion, this technological advance “could increase the supply of almost everything.”
For Szabo, who some believe is the person behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto (the creator of Bitcoin), AI will cause general deflation in retail.
This process, sayscould lead to banks, “managed by AI or not”, also increasing the issuance of fiat currencies, which would generate inflationary pressures in traditional systems.
The developer added in his post on X that advances in robotic mining could even impact the production of precious metals. “I imagine that robotic mining equipment will increase the supply of gold,” he said, highlighting that this phenomenon could modify the patterns of scarcity that have historically supported its value.
In contrast, he stressed that “bitcoin (BTC) is another matter,” differentiating the most valued digital currency in the world from assets whose offer can be expanded through technology or human intervention. As CriptoNoticias explains, the BTC supply is limited to 21 million units.
For his part, in response to a user who questioned why bitcoin has been tracking the behavior of the Nasdaq technology index, Szabo argued that “BTC, like technology stocks, is climbing a learning curve.”
“As more people understand its advantages as a store of value, the more they invest in it,” he commented, adding that Bitcoin’s characteristics are difficult to assimilate “for those who grew up with fiat money,” so adoption could take decades.
Indeed, bitcoin and the Nasdaq index have had similar behavior in the last yearincreasing by 25% in the case of the digital currency and 16% in the case of the stock indicator. This is seen in the graph below:
Nick Szabo, a cryptographer and one of the pioneers of digital currencies, is known for his work on Bit Gold, a conceptual precursor to Bitcoin developed in 1998. Although it has not been confirmed that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, his intervention in this debate reaffirms its influence on the evolution of the ecosystem and his critical look at the economic impact of artificial intelligence.