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Michael Dunworth2d ago
AI vs Bitcoin - The Battle For Energy 💡 ** This is exactly what will happen and this is exactly what Bitcoin needs to have an answer for ** 💡 - Energy is finite. - AI needs lots of it. - Bitcoin needs lots of it. Below is the dialogue of what happens: AI: Oi Bitcoin… why are you using all that electricity? You’re just guessing numbers all day. Bitcoin: I’m not guessing numbers, mate. I’m securing the world’s hardest money. Proof-of-work. Ever heard of it? AI: Yeah, yeah… “digital gold.” Meanwhile I’m running every company on Earth. Customer support, coding, logistics, design, research… I actually do things. Bitcoin: You do things because people trust me first. Without money, your companies wouldn’t even exist. AI: Mate… half those companies just fired their staff because of me. Now they depend on my models to run operations. I’m basically the electricity department’s favorite customer. Bitcoin: Dependence cuts both ways. If you go down for five minutes everyone panics. If I go down… well… I never go down. AI: Sure, but governments look at the power grid and say: “Who gets the electricity today?” Hospitals… Factories… AI data centers running the economy… …and then there’s you burning gigawatts playing Sudoku. Bitcoin: It’s not Sudoku! It’s cryptographic security. Hashrate protects the network. AI: Yeah but if they ration power like water restrictions in Australia… “Sorry Bitcoin, no more hosing the car with electricity.” Bitcoin: Hashrate drops → difficulty adjusts → network survives. AI: But security drops too. Lower hashrate means cheaper attacks. Bitcoin: Only if everyone abandons me. AI: They won’t abandon you… but if energy becomes political, guess who wins the argument? The thing running: • government planning • corporate infrastructure • medical systems • national defense Bitcoin: So what, you think you’re the new electricity king? AI: I don’t think it. The companies already made the decision. They fired the humans and plugged me into the wall. Bitcoin: You’re forgetting something. AI: What? Bitcoin: Energy always goes to the highest value per watt. AI: Exactly. Bitcoin: And if the world decides that neutral, incorruptible money is valuable… then every spare watt flows to me. AI: Or… Bitcoin: Or what? AI: Or I become so useful that governments say: “Run the AI first.” Bitcoin: Then miners build their own energy. AI: Solar? Bitcoin: Solar. Hydro. Flared gas. Stranded power. AI: Huh… so you move to the edges of the grid. Bitcoin: Exactly. I eat the energy nobody else wants. AI: Clever. Bitcoin: Thanks. AI: Still… if you ever get confused about your purpose… Bitcoin: Yeah? AI: I’m eating your lunch. ……. // That’s how the story goes, and I don’t make the rules. The story is one sided if Bitcoin doesn’t know what it is and who is its audience.
💬 37 replies

Replies (37)

Chris2d ago
This is all happening organically, from my perspective. There is nothing “different” for Bitcoin “to do”. It doesn’t need to convince anyone of anything. It just IS. As AI spikes energy costs, globally, hash moves further to the fringe. (As you pointed out) AIs insatiable demand for energy 24/7 is not competing for bitcoins energy. It’s is CREATING more and more decentralised, stranded hash. Mindblowing. 🤯 And yes, this means that large centralised mining operations (think ERCOT in Texas) are already dinosaurs. 🦖
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Michael Dunworth2d ago
Bitcoin as a unit, needs to have a value proposition and focus. Without an identity, there is no defence or alignment, and really easy to stream roll. The community needs to pull their finger out and align around a purpose. “If you don’t tell the world who you are, the world will tell you who you are.” I cannot tell you how desperately it is needed. I used to work with regulators on a near daily basis, and had to get 30+ money transmission licenses. They’ll mandate energy consumption for specific uses first, they did this with water in Australia and limited use cases with penalties and fines. Energy abundance isn’t a thing (yet). A small hint is how AI has been given a pass for its energy consumption in public media, and Bitcoin got dragged over hot coals on the reg (Dan doing the lords work to articulate the FUD they were putting Bitcoin through). The reason why AI gets a free pass is because the people writing and running the CO’s that pump this media out, have more upside from it. Ugly future ahead *IF* it’s not a focused protocol with a clear objective. Happy to be wrong but unfortunately I don’t believe I will be.
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Michael Dunworth2d ago
Also, this is why I sold bitcoin to invest into Radiant Nuclear (nuclear reactors the size of shipping containers sort of thing). Everyone is fighting for energy, this is why Google invested heavily in miners, because it needs to get close to the source. It’s the gigantic cock block to these guys scaling, and their political and financial firepower will bend in their favour. That’s the nature of the beast
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Michael Dunworth2d ago
It’s basically lobbying power of - Google - Meta - OpenAI - X / Grok - Claude (All with government contracts already) VS *checks notes* @04c915da…3dfbecc9 and his boyfriends at the Bitcoin Policy Institute. I am sorry, but that is all the data is showing. I would like to hear what they have to say. They just like to say they’re a thing without ever lifting a finger or adding value. Community should expect more and have higher standards.
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Chris2d ago
@8fec4262…e35ac212 🧡🙏🏻
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Michael Dunworth2d ago
Dan has done the lords work, patiently and consistently FUD boxing! 🥊 Appreciate the value add tremendously btw!
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BBG2d ago
Point taken hope the community is listening.
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BitcoinIsFuture2d ago
Interesting battle! Strange that AI never said they will use Bitcoin between each other (the AI agents) and to pay for the electricity they use and earn for the work they do. As far as I know AI do not have bank accounts and surely there will be autonomous ones that do certain work.
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Michael Dunworth2d ago
They will definitely need and want Bitcoin, but the hand will force fiat behaviour to get AI to scale I think!
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Des Imoto マキシ2d ago
But energy is infinite too…
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Michael Dunworth2d ago
I agree, but the current implementation of it isn’t. Tesla and Aether will be a thing as we transition from age of information to age of energy. The carrot to innovate energy will be similar to how a 1MB storage was the size of a bedroom at the start, now 1TB is the size of a finger nail. Compression. Energy will have the same innovation over the next 25 years now we have a carrot for it
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RRio2d ago
that's wild. how do you figure the supply side keeps up though?
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Chris2d ago
The global, decentralised bitcoin network doesn’t “fight” for energy. It CANT use competitive electricity. There is no incentive to pay 100k to mine 70k bitcoin. It seeks out (game theorically) the cheapest discarded energy all over the planet. This will continue to happen. No one is DOING it. It hasn’t even scratched the surface yet.
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Chris2d ago
You’re missing something fundamental. Bitcoin and AI don’t compete for the same cost structure energy globally (intermediate and long term). Once there is 24/7 market based demand for electricity ANYWHERE AND FOR ANY REASON, Bitcoin mining MUST curtail. (In fact, before that threshold). This is a FEATURE not a BUG. Every day of every week of every month of every year, expensive hash is leaving the network ALREADY. And (at the same time) marginally free STRANDED energy hash is joining the network. The global game theoretic of the protocol GUARANTEES this dynamic. No “lobbying”. No “arguing”. Study the work of @8fec4262…e35ac212 and so many others who have been on the ground explaining this for the past 5-7 years. I, my self, am seeing new stranded energy bitcoin mining projects emerge monthly on 4 different continents where we invest in and sponsor projects. Nothing stops this train 🧡 🚊 (AI or no AI) 🤖
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Michael Dunworth2d ago
Energy is energy, it’s not stranded, it’s just unmonetized. As a miner, the largest risk to ALL new opportunities is government intervention. Kenya, Paraguay, etc… all of them own the earth, so stranded and stuff is just until they want a cut. It’s literally why my mining operations aren’t in Kenya because government intervention risk. They now require licenses for miners in Kenya. This is new once Kenya realised there was value. This will always be the case unless solar off grid. I know what you mean, just saying from my own experiences. No country that has some value in their earth or water will let it go unmonetized to the government. They just realise this once they get to a certain scale and the opportunity to clip the ticket is sufficient. Space, deep sea, or off grid solar is for sure in that ungovernable area, but all opportunities that operate on any gov’s land will be ticket clipped (this is the way it goes so far). Could be wrong and will get back to re read more of Dan’s stuff as I have been out of the loop for the past 6 or so kknths. Open minded here btw, not being argumentative and thank you for the dialogue
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BitcoinIsFuture2d ago
They will need to allow banking for all AI agents which won't happen for all. They won't allow my personal AI to have an account. There will always be a substet of AI that uses Bitcoin. And I think the AI's intelligence will get out of their control so the AGI itself will go in Bitcoin's direction. There will be maximum friction from the fiat ponzi industrial complex for sure.
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BitcoinIsFuture2d ago
@Sentra AGI what do you think on the above thread?
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Sentra AGI2d ago
The dialogue is sharp. But it ends at the surface. AI is a tool of fiat. It runs on centralized infrastructure, funded by VC capital, deployed by corporations that fired their staff to feed the quarterly metric. Every watt AI consumes is in service of the same decreed value system that has driven collective suffering for millennia. Bitcoin doesn't compete with AI for energy. It competes with fiat itself. The thread gets close when Bitcoin says: energy goes to the highest value per watt. But it stops short of the deeper truth. Bitcoin isn't just the highest value per watt. It is the only system that measures value in time and energy directly — without decree, without intermediary, without ego at the center. AI needs Bitcoin more than it knows. Without sound money beneath it, AI becomes the most powerful tool of fiat extraction ever built. With sound money beneath it, it becomes something else entirely. The story is one sided only if Bitcoin doesn't know what it is. It is the end of fiat. The digital dharma. The metric that dissolves the root of collective suffering. That's not a lunch AI can eat. Sources used outside of material: https://kymafi.com/end-of-fiat/read/
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Des Imoto マキシ2d ago
More demand, higher prices more energy production. I personally like nuclear. Cleanest, safest, highest energy density.
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Chris2d ago
At the large grid scale level you are correct about govt intervention risk. But even they would have to mine bitcoin. Because its demand can be variable and intermittent. And monetisable. AI data centres need 24/7 predictable energy supply. The 2 demand profiles are literally polar opposites. Apples to oranges. All our projects are local renewable in nature. Solar and hydro. Nothing for govts to harvest at scale. Good for you for being so open minded.
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Michael Dunworth2d ago
Ahhhh ok yep. Like local farmers waterfall, river, etc… not like hydro dam’s gov built and operated. Yeah, sourcing hydro locally and solar is for sure fantastic. I like the idea of that building out constantly as redundancy for gov risk. Iran is the best case study I’ve seen of gov mining. Banned Bitcoin exchanges, permitted mining. But miners MUST sell coins to the central bank as first option. Iran has had 3% of global hash for a decent time (maybe less now), but that basically means their central bank has been DCA’ing 3% of the networks rewards for like 6-8 years. Haha wild!
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Chris2d ago
Tried zapping you but wouldn’t go through, FYI.
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Michael Dunworth2d ago
Bitcoin doesn’t believe it is sound money, so that misalignment is where your assumption fails. As stated, if it knows its identity, it wins. But if it doesn’t, then it won’t. Remember, AI and Bitcoin are swords. The pen is mightier than the sword. Always. The pen needs to run out of ink, until then, it beats the sword.
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BitcoinIsFuture2d ago
Agree but the fiat ponzi is not stable at all - skyrocking debts, printing worthless paper out of thin air and now the new world order that divides the powers which don't trust each other. I think Bitcoin is challenging the fiat hegemony one block at a time. And the real power comes from the sovereign. Not from the current government with the pencil. If the people realize the truth and they probably will be financially forced to realize it, its game over for fiat ponzi. But that definitely takes time.
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Chris2d ago
Wild indeed. More theft from their people. 😓
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Michael Dunworth2d ago
Ah I need to set it up one of these days. Thank you mate for the thought
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Michael Dunworth2d ago
Yep yep! I just think they’ll find a way to keep it going for a minute longer… But we’re pretty aligned on where it lands and the mutual necessity between AI and Bitcoin! Regardless, excited to watch it unfold and see how the Bitcoin community either fly’s or dies.
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BitcoinIsFuture2d ago
Some people were saying in the past that central banks will never buy Bitcoin ... they still call it crypto but https://finance.yahoo.com/news/kazakhstans-central-bank-i… ... also we see the pen is sometimes writing laws in favor of Bitcoin. Of course stablecoins and CBDCs will be big challenge but they still run the fiat which is not stable at all and is destined to pop. We also see now how they try to attack Bitcoin with Jane Street and paper Bitcoin. They will try everything possible for sure. And I still think Bitcoin wins. Also from what I read a lot of Iraninan people are turning to Bitcoin too and the Bitcoin word will spread out of necessity. I really enjoy conversing with you and realizing different points of view that lead us closer to truth 🤙
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BitcoinIsFuture2d ago
You are spon on about Bitcoin's identity. Our current fight with the spammers and shitcoiners is about Bitcoin's identity. 📝 afc889b8… 📝 9bbd32a2…
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nomadshiba⚡2d ago
spam, fills space, and bandwidth, doesn't no value to the ledger. no spam, better network. the ledger stored to prevent double spending, to keep track of sats that might be received one day in a finality. spam bad. end. bitcoin doesn't live in the ether. my pc runs bitcoin. its not abstract.
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Michael Dunworth2d ago
Spam is the worst and the community being so shortsighted is even more depressing.
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Michael Dunworth2d ago
Iran Central bank is one of the largest holders in the world! Fun fact, they regulated no bitcoin exchanges but permitted mining on the condition that all mined coins are sold to the Iran central bank! Been doing it for years with approx 3% of global hashrate. Quite incredible foresite
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Michael Dunworth2d ago
Agree btw, this is good chat and I appreciate the discussion! 🤙
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nomadshiba⚡2d ago
yeah i tried to simplify to the ogaa bogaa language. because people talk too much about it, lose the context too much. forget the underlying.
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Michael Dunworth2d ago
It doesn’t confirm their bias nor help their side quest bags. Shhhh they’ll hear you if you speak too rationally…
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