Bitcoin miners strike back on energy

NASHVILLE — Bitcoin miners at Bitcoin 2024 came out of the gate striking back on the question of energy use, arguing that its critics are thinking about energy all wrong.

Why it matters: The question is one of the core points of contention between Bitcoin miners and the wider world, which still views the asset with suspicion — a fight that has gotten political at the highest levels in recent years.

What they're saying: "We should not be conservation maximalists," Harry Sudock of GRIID said on stage at one of the first sessions of the conference.

• Sudock said that quality of life for humans and energy consumption are correlated — more power used equates to greater human flourishing.
• He said the world should strive not to use less power, but to produce more as sustainably as possible.

💭 Our thought bubble: That argument isn't selling at the mass level of American discourse.

Fun fact: Core Scientific has a multimedia booth here with a 360-degree screen that articulates Bitcoin as the next step to harnessing energy of the whole universe.

• The display is like standing in a Stanley Kubrick movie.

The latest: While people have criticized Bitcoin for years for its power use, it's clear that the next big consumer — artificial intelligence — will blow Bitcoin away in terms of its power consumption.

Zoom in: Jayson Browder who works on the government affairs team of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin miner, Marathon Digital Holdings, told Axios about how Bitcoin miners can help power suppliers capitalize on expansions that can seal the deal with AI customers.

• AI providers need to guarantee 100% uptime. They can't function in a demand response environment as Bitcoin can. However, they need to know that when they build, all the power will be there.

Friction point: As Browder put it, power suppliers don't want to build what they can't sell, but AI providers won't build if they don't know the power will be there.

• Bitcoin miners, he argued, can step into that gap. If providers build for the AI clients, Bitcoin miners can use the power while they build out data centers and scale back once those centers enter operations.
• This largely squares with what Russell Cann of Core Scientific said on another panel: Bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence are very different businesses with different power profiles.
• But Bitcoin mining can help with making it worthwhile to develop power sources for all this incoming demand.

What's next: Policy around the country hasn't caught up with the power-hungry future. Browder said they're watching policy at all levels going into this election year and looking for opportunities to advance the industry's interest.

• "This is the last White House election where you can be against the industry," he predicted.