Bitcoin Miners Are the Perfect Partners for AI Data Centers

Buoyed by the promise of cognitive automation, the world's economy is receiving another layer on top of the digital, the high-performance computing (HPC) layer.

The Federal Reserve’s 2020 money supply tampering, which resulted in a ~40% boost, has had a universal impact: inflation. This, in turn, siphons away people’s life energy as their savings are eroded. When more money buys less, extra energy needs to be exerted to keep the same pace.

The solution to this problem is obvious: Make money tamper-proof through decentralization and fixed supply. Let no one lord over it. That is the initial drive behind Bitcoin, but one that needs a critical component to work – physical grounding.

If Bitcoin were just a digital asset, it would be easier to alter the network’s ledger, known as blockchain. The elegant remedy for this is proof-of-work mining, which acts as an energy barrier tying Bitcoin’s digital code to real-world resources. If a would-be attacker is set on altering the ledger’s record, they would require an exorbitant amount of energy harnessing computational power.

At 733.41 EH/s (hashrate), such an energy barrier is virtually impenetrable. But that means that Bitcoin’s energy need is the cost of having tamper-proof money. Likewise, energy is the cost of having data centers churn out text/images/videos/codes whenever people prompt AI agents.

In both cases, human productivity is augmented. But can their energy needs be optimized in a symbiotic manner?

The Energy Dynamics of Bitcoin Mining and AI

It is safe to say that being a developed nation is strongly correlated with a high energy usage. This is clearly visible if we chart per capita electricity generation in kilowatt-hours (kWh) against a nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).

In other words, access to energy excess is a requirement for civilizational advancement to manifest. After all, when multiple layers are added to the basic subsistence level such as agriculture, new layers in manufacturing, transportation, public services, urbanization and computing need to be fed.

Going beyond mere data centers for internet browsing or online banking, generative AI and Bitcoin mining represent the latest civilizational layer as high-performance computing (HPC). HPC energy needs are exceedingly high.

According to the Department of Energy (DoE), data servers already use 10x to 50x more energy (per floor space) than commercial office buildings, while accounting for 2% of total US electricity usage. Given rising data center demand trends, the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts their total electricity consumption could increase over 1,000 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2026.

For comparison, such a demand spike would be the equivalent to Japan’s present electricity consumption. Contrasted to Bitcoin mining, EIA notes that it exerted 130 TWh electricity demand.

Goldman Sachs Research estimates that AI data center consumption will exert 200 TWh annually between 2023 and 2030, given that a simple Google search query needs 0.3 watt-hours while a single ChatGPT query demands 2.9 watt-hours of electricity.

These trends call for significant optimization efforts. The Bitcoin mining industry has continuously exerted such efforts by upgrading to more efficient ASIC machines, primarily produced by Bitmain, MicroBT, Canaan, Bitfury, Ebang, and others.

Likewise, superior cooling solutions significantly reduce energy consumption as ASIC rigs can maintain lower operating temperatures for longer, reducing the need for cooling power consumption in the process. Liquid and immersion cooling is estimated to reduce Bitcoin mining operational expenses by up to 33%.

On the AI energy front, Nvidia’s GPUs dominate the scene with an estimated 65% market share. Nvidia’s latest Blackwell GPU microarchitecture has purportedly reduced energy cost by 25x from its predecessor Hopper. As the main supplier to Big Tech as Mistral, Meta and Apple leading the charge when it comes to locally-hosted large language models (LLMs), we’re about to see an uptick when it comes to GPU server hosting and adjacent architecture.

However, there is much more to energy consumption optimization than updating to better chips and tweaked cooling. And it is here that Bitcoin mining in particular could shine.

The Role of Bitcoin Mining in Energy Management

It is a simplistic idea to think that a power plant produces electricity, and then that output is received by the consumer. On that pathway, conversion happens from high-voltage transmission over long distances to lower-voltage for the end-user.

言い換えれば、電力網は高出力と低入力の間でバランスを取る必要があるため、EIA によると平均 5% を占める送配電 (T&D) 損失が発生します。

このバランスをとる行為に対処する 1 つの方法は、電力の需要と供給の間の急速な変動のギャップを埋めることができるエネルギー貯蔵に依存することです。ただし、蓄電池は初期費用が高いだけでなく、リチウムイオン電池が主流です

The above is the detailed content of Bitcoin Miners Are the Perfect Partners for AI Data Centers. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!