Opportunity for miners – AI and cybersecurity

AI revolution

AI ​​revolution, which we are all experiencing first-hand, consumes vast amounts of computing power. Accordingly, it is obvious that the mining hardware is not only used for Bitcoin, but also for AI high-performance computing operations. The BTC Miner Hut 8 and Hive Blockchain have already used their infrastructure for arithmetic operations in the machine learning area.

Of course, some hardware components have to be converted for this, but this effort is relatively easy to implement. Finally, building the right setup with cheap power, adequate cooling, and physical infrastructure is far more challenging.

PoW for Independence

In addition to the economic aspect of running arithmetic operations for AI applications as a Bitcoin miner, there is also the security factor. The decentralization of various computing operations can contribute to a new and necessary level of security.

A globally distributed AI network spanning crypto mining rigs would be significantly more difficult for governments or other parties to control centrally than an AI network located in Amazon and Co. owned server farms, as is currently the case the case is. Not an irrelevant factor for national security in the face of increasing cyber attacks and electronic warfare. This applies not only to AI, but to all forms of data streams.

Bitcoin mining against cyber attacks

US officer Major Jason Lowery came to the same conclusion. At MIT, he recently published his thesis paper Software, which sparked public debate. In this paper, he calls on the Pentagon to use the Bitcoin network as a foundation layer for various infrastructure applications.

This would drive up the cost of cyber attacks. Especially since a focus on Bitcoin mining could lead to global superiority in terms of energy availability. Even if his theses may be very daring and leave many questions, this reveals a new understanding of the use of the proof-of-work mechanism in Bitcoin.

Turbo for the energy transition

One challenge with renewable energies is that, in contrast to coal or nuclear power, they are highly volatile. There are various influencing factors that determine how high the energy yield is: Sometimes the wind blows stronger, sometimes the sun shines less.

In order to enable nationwide coverage with regenerative energies, which also guarantees consumption when the yield is low, you have to install so many wind and solar systems that there is often an overproduction of energy. In order not to overload the grids, buyers for the electricity have to be found.

This is exactly where the energy-intensive bitcoin mining comes into play. Because mining systems can be switched on and off very flexibly, they are able to act as spontaneous buyers for surplus production. With them, the utilization of energy networks could not only be better controlled, but the regenerative energies could become profitable more quickly thanks to the Bitcoin-related cross-financing.

The possibilities go far beyond this application. Be it to use the mining waste heat for heating purposes or to reduce CO2 emissions when burning fossil fuels by processing excess gases. This would be a great opportunity for BTC’s image: from dirty slob to green savior.

Investment case: Higher profitability through variety of applications

The ability to adapt their infrastructure to market conditions is a huge opportunity for the bitcoin mining industry. After all, they would reduce their dependence on the BTC course or the mining difficulty.

The crypto winter has shown how tough it can be for companies when they are only dependent on volatile Bitcoin price events. By making the infrastructure more flexible, miners can not only increase their profitability by investing their computing power where the yield is highest. They would also be able to survive bitcoin dry spells much better. Bitcoin itself would also benefit from this application diversification, since the financing of decentralization would be based on several pillars.