Van Ness raises the possibility of Pearl (PEARL) overtaking Bitcoin

Evan Van Ness, founder of the Ethereum newsletter, argued in a Foresight News interview that Pearl (PEARL), a layer-1 blockchain using "useful proof-of-work," could eventually surpass Bitcoin. Pearl's mining relies on matrix multiplication that doubles as computation for AI model training and inference, allowing mining to run alongside AI inference with little added overhead, he said. Van Ness criticized Bitcoin's design as having hardened too early and flagged concerns over its security budget—the economic rewards that sustain miner participation in network security. The comparison matters because it frames AI compute demand as a potential new source of blockchain security and value, a narrative that could draw attention and capital toward compute-backed networks. What to watch next is whether Pearl can translate the thesis into measurable on-chain activity and miner adoption.