Bitcoin Skeptic Jeff Booth Spent 15,000 Hours Trying to Break It

Jeff Booth, founding partner at Ego Death Capital and a director at Core Scientific, was once deeply skeptical of Bitcoin. The longtime technology entrepreneur, who co-founded BuildDirect in 1999 and authored The Price of Tomorrow in 2020, initially questioned whether Bitcoin could remain decentralized and secure against governments or other powerful attackers.

Instead of accepting Bitcoin’s claims, Booth spent roughly 15,000 hours studying how the network could fail. He ran a Bitcoin node and examined potential attacks involving governments, major miners and competing interests. His conclusion eventually changed his investment strategy: the vulnerabilities he expected to find were not enough to undermine Bitcoin’s core design.

Booth argues that Bitcoin’s security comes from its decentralized consensus and proof-of-work system, where blocks continue to be produced using real energy. Today, roughly 24,000 reachable Bitcoin nodes enforce consensus rules, while the cryptocurrency’s 21 million BTC supply limit remains intact despite renewed debate over changing it.

His conviction led him to help establish Bitcoin-focused venture fund Ego Death Capital in 2022. The firm closed a $100 million second fund in July 2025. Booth has also served on Core Scientific’s board since the Bitcoin mining company emerged from Chapter 11 in January 2024.

Still, Booth acknowledges significant Bitcoin risks, particularly mining pool concentration and miner centralization. Three pools recently accounted for about 61% of blocks, while approximately 80% of reachable nodes reportedly use Bitcoin Core.

Mining economics are adding pressure. Riot Platforms recorded a $90,631 cost per Bitcoin last quarter when depreciation was included, while Bitcoin hashrate has fallen about 22% from its October 2025 peak. Core Scientific, meanwhile, generated 83% of second-quarter revenue from colocation and only 13% from self-mining.

Bitcoin governance also remains contentious. The BIP-110 breakaway fork has attracted limited mining support, while recent Coldcard and BTCPay Server exploits caused user losses without compromising Bitcoin consensus.

For Booth, that distinction is critical. After years of trying to find a fatal technical flaw, he believes Bitcoin’s biggest vulnerability is ultimately human choice—not its code.