Leggi questo articolo in Italiano Italiano

2 min read 17 Oct 2024

Bitcoin mining: the DANGERS behind the convergence with AI

By Davide Grammatica

The integration of AI components into the mining industry, according to MARA's Fred Thiel, could pose serious risks to the industry

Bitcoin mining: the DANGERS behind the convergence with AI

Between mining and AI, MARA sounds the alarm

The Bitcoin mining world has long been experimenting with new development solutions through new AI technologies. A convergence judged by many as profitable for both sides, but also deemed “dangerous” by Fred Thiel, ceo of MARA (formerly Marathon Digital), as revealed in an interview with Bernstein reported by The Block.

Indeed, the mining company, a point of reference in the industry, through its ceo, warned of the risks derived from this convergence, for an “AI environment” that is increasingly taking on the features of a “bubble” ready to burst.

At risk would primarily be the smaller players, who could end up building infrastructure that does not reflect real market demand. This would result in financial difficulties, of course, and lost revenue for customers.

The benefits derived from AI to support BTC mining development, in absolute terms, according to Thiel, remain clear. But the risk of the various companies going the “extra mile” exists. And the game in the industry seems to be played precisely on this point, between those who remain “pure-play” miners and those who instead aim to adopt AI diversifiers (perhaps by becoming data center energy partners): on one side precisely MARA, on the other players such as Core Scientific, IREN and Terawulf.

The Evolution of BTC Mining

For MARA, as Thiel pointed out, it is more a matter of “consolidation and diversification”. The company pints to get to own “100 percent of its mining capacity,” achieving a lower cost to acquire bitcoin than any other competitor. In parallel, it plans to gain access to its own chip technologies through new acquisitions, and thus avoid dependence on outside suppliers.

These include the miner Auradine, with respect to which MARA has participated in two funding rounds of $81 and $80 million.

X

Vuoi essere IL PRIMO a conoscere ciò che muove il mercato?

Resta aggiornato in tempo reale con le notizie importanti, dati e analisi ESCLUSIVE

bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 85,323.86
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 1,635.98
tether
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 2.14
bnb
BNB (BNB) $ 586.90
solana
Solana (SOL) $ 130.38
usd-coin
USDC (USDC) $ 1.00
tron
TRON (TRX) $ 0.253243
dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.160083
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.642151
staked-ether
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 1,634.79
wrapped-bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 85,258.84
leo-token
LEO Token (LEO) $ 9.43
avalanche-2
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 20.14
chainlink
Chainlink (LINK) $ 12.65
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.241152
usds
USDS (USDS) $ 1.00
the-open-network
Toncoin (TON) $ 2.93
sui
Sui (SUI) $ 2.19
shiba-inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000012
hedera-hashgraph
Hedera (HBAR) $ 0.166396
wrapped-steth
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 1,958.66
bitcoin-cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 330.17
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 78.42
polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 3.67
hyperliquid
Hyperliquid (HYPE) $ 16.20
binance-bridged-usdt-bnb-smart-chain
Binance Bridged USDT (BNB Smart Chain) (BSC-USD) $ 0.997882
bitget-token
Bitget Token (BGB) $ 4.31
pi-network
Pi Network (PI) $ 0.745298
ethena-usde
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 0.999441
weth
WETH (WETH) $ 1,633.06
whitebit
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 27.82
monero
Monero (XMR) $ 211.80
wrapped-eeth
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 1,740.26
uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) $ 5.37
coinbase-wrapped-btc
Coinbase Wrapped BTC (CBBTC) $ 85,377.88
dai
Dai (DAI) $ 1.00
okb
OKB (OKB) $ 51.93
pepe
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000007
aptos
Aptos (APT) $ 4.76
gatechain-token
Gate (GT) $ 22.51
ondo-finance
Ondo (ONDO) $ 0.869121
near
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 2.11
susds
sUSDS (SUSDS) $ 1.05
blackrock-usd-institutional-digital-liquidity-fund
BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) $ 1.00
tokenize-xchange
Tokenize Xchange (TKX) $ 30.57
internet-computer
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 4.90
mantle
Mantle (MNT) $ 0.696955
crypto-com-chain
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.085139
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 15.22