Beyond the energy-waste argument, why the mining industry became a catalyst for AI infrastructure
Last month, I had the opportunity to have dinner in Abu Dhabi with a senior official from the UAE Federal Ministry of Economy. What struck me in our conversation was that they saw Bitcoin mining and AI data centers not as separate industries, but as one integrated energy infrastructure. A country preparing for the end of the oil era was identifying “technology that converts energy into value” as a key asset of the next era. It was no coincidence that Mubadala bet billions of dollars on Crusoe Energy.
This essay is the flow of my thinking, at this point in time, about the Bitcoin mining industry, prompted by that conversation. Of course, I don't know how things will change in the future.. Anyway, I have tried to organize the old criticism that Bitcoin wastes electricity, along with the recent concern that it competes with AI for power—the latest context I gathered from relevant experts in the UAE and the United States.
Energy cannot be created through legislation. But Bitcoin can turn wasted energy into value. Thanks to this simple fact, Bitcoin is likely to become even more important in the AI era, and sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East have also begun investing at this intersection.
에너지의 화폐화: AI 시대, 비트코인의 역할을 재정의하다Medium · medium.comOpen
