We explain bitcoin mining’s basic design parameters as a kind of energy-intensive lottery that secures a distributed network and fairly distributes new bitcoin. Those design parameters cause it to be a flexible, scalable, portable, location-agnostic, and price-sensitive consumer of electricity. That, in turn, dictates its relentless search for waste energy, whether mitigating flare gas in remote oil fields or co-locating with solar and wind installations. Bitcoin miners, like dung beetles, subsist on waste.
For contrast, we compare AI computing to locusts, which feed on valuable crops: their power usage is mostly inflexible, location-dependent, scale-dependent, and price-insensitive. AI data centers add to peak demand, requiring additional peak generation from grids.
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Hmm, interesting. Not sure I fully understand why. Is it because Bitcoin compute power / hardware requirements are more divisible and can operate at lower scale?
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @k00b 1 Aug
Yes, and I’d guess you can’t stop these ML tasks at any random point and recover fully.
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