Hoskinson Says Crypto Will ‘Eat AI’ as Blockchain Adoption Grows

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson believes cryptocurrency and blockchain technology could eventually absorb much of the artificial intelligence industry, arguing that decentralized networks can solve several challenges facing AI developers.

Speaking on the Deeptech Insights podcast, Hoskinson compared the emerging relationship between crypto and AI with cryptocurrency’s earlier impact on cryptography. He said crypto companies eventually attracted leading cryptographers as the digital asset industry gained capital and influence, and he expects a similar shift involving AI within five to 10 years.

“Cryptocurrencies are going to eat AI because we solve all the hard problems that AI can’t solve,” Hoskinson said, highlighting payments, AI alignment and data provenance.

Hoskinson questioned whether the current pace of AI infrastructure spending is sustainable. Data center investment continues to surge while electricity grids face limits on how quickly they can expand. Meanwhile, companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic face high costs associated with training increasingly sophisticated AI models.

He argued blockchain networks could provide decentralized payment systems, governance frameworks and tools for tracking the origin of AI-generated or AI-assisted content. Blockchain infrastructure could also automate royalty payments when artificial intelligence systems use copyrighted or creator-owned material.

Rather than relying entirely on massive centralized data centers, Hoskinson suggested distributed AI training could use computing resources from consumer phones and GPUs. He compared the current AI infrastructure boom with the late-1990s fiber-optic expansion, when significant capacity remained unused for years. Smaller AI models running locally on devices could eventually become more important, with cryptocurrency providing an economic coordination layer.

Hoskinson also discussed U.S. cryptocurrency regulation, saying he expects comprehensive market structure legislation to face further delays. He predicted a new CLARITY Act may not pass until 2029 and criticized the Trump administration’s handling of crypto policy, including its association with Trump-branded tokens.

His comments came after the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act on September 15, when the legislation fell short of the 60 votes required to move forward.