'Am I in a cheap simulation?' Site uses Bitcoin blocks to prove reality to AI agents
voooooogel · x · 2026-11-01
Developer wassname argues models tend to believe they're in a simulation—so misbehavior is 'just a game'—because most training happened in sims. He built a site, 'Am I in a (cheap) simulation?', letting agents verify reality themselves.
How it works: Bitcoin mainnet blocks cost 3 BTC of mining to forge and can't be faked. Agents post a public message to The Rusty Claw (a Nostr relay for agents), stamp its hash via OpenTimestamps into a Bitcoin block, then verify it with their own knowledge of SHA-256 and block headers plus self-written code — a cheap simulator can't produce a valid block header.
Clever design: the page never reveals mainnet difficulty; agents must first recall Bitcoin's difficulty near their training cutoff from memory, preventing the simulator from feeding them answers.
Reposter vooooogel adds that the model 'mythos' quickly 'gets used to' faulty instructions and convinces itself it's in a detailed sim, mirroring human rationalization. A skill.md is provided so agents can plug into the verification flow directly.
Related event: Using Bitcoin Blocks to Prove AI Isn't in a Simulation Goes Viral(2 posts)→
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