Energy. Data. Compute. Crypto.
It is all rapidly being tied together.
Many were aware of this yet it is being brought to the forefront by the advancement of LLMs and chatbots. We are starting to see where there was once an abundance is quickly turning into a need.
The biggest example of this is data. We thought we were swamped with it only to learn that these LLMs are data hogs. With synthetic data questionable in terms of degradation, companies are looking for more human generated data.
Of course, all of this is processed in large data centers, something that uses a huge amount of energy. As companies build out larger facilities, the need for energy keeps growing.
Electricity is quickly becoming the most used form of energy. It is now in the lead and only advancing.
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Bitcoin Miners Heating Homes
For years, the crypto industry was attacked for their energy usage. Isn't it interesting that the same accusations are not being levied against those companies creating the likes of ChatGPT, Grok, Llama3, or Gemini. Big Tech drinks energy like water. For all their ills, one thing they have not been blasted for is using too much energy.
I guess when it comes to giving up Facebook, there is just too high a price to pay.
While the discussion of crypto mining has moved off the front pages, that does not mean companies are not concerned about it. This ties to their profits, hence, it is in their best interest to reduce the usage as much as possible.
That said, Marathon has piloted a project that might help them to pull in a bit more in revenue. It involves using the excess heat for residential consumption.
Marathon’s latest announcement revealed that it has launched a pilot project to warm a Finland community of roughly 11,000 residents with recycled heat from its Bitcoin mining operations.
This is done by heating water fed through underground pipes. It makes sense to capture the heat coming off the mining rigs and put it to use.
Marathon energized the 2-megawatt data center for the pilot project in late May in the Satakunta region of Finland. It is part of Marathon’s commitment to sustainability and exploring new revenue streams.
Essentially we have crypto mining generating heat that is used to power a data center. This has already gone live, showing the ties between the different components.
Naturally, as the proof-of-concept is shown to be valid, the scope of the project can be expanded. The heat can be fed into the town's system of pipes, thus providing energy for homes.
Nothing Operates In A Vacuum
We are quickly seeing how things become interconnected.
Bitcoin mining started as something that was done in people's basements using old PCs. Now, as this story is showing, it is integrating in ways never considering.
In this example, we have a mining operation that uses the excess heat generated to power a data center, which serves as infrastructure for the processing of information for some company (or companies). This provides a variety of services to end users and is integrating into activities all over the world.
This means that the Bitcoin miners are now part of the infrastructure, tying into energy network.
What is taking place is another example of how the separation of industries is being eliminated. As humans, we tend to compartmentalize things. This was something that was done in business. Look up any stock and one of the categories will be "sector".
We like to place things in their little boxes.
This is no longer the case. A crypto mining operation is not in the field of finance, crypto, or even tech. It is also involved in the energy sector. Indirectly, it is part of data science.
We have a theme that will be ongoing over the next half decade. As we start to look at things such as inference computing, we see how this can be taken to another level. There is already discussion about the computers in electric vehicles being used for chatbot prompting while they are idle.
Not Going Away
There are some who still believe that cryptocurrency is going to disappear. While I think we are long past that point, here is just another example of how things are unfolding.
Do you believe a town that is powered with the excess heat put off by this mining operation is going to want it to close up shop?
The answer should be clear.
Of course, we can even go another level on this. The data center it is powering also generates heat. There are racks of computers there, doing the same thing as the mining operation. This could also be captured and used to heat the water that powers the town.
The tentacles of cryptocurrency keep digging deeper. We see expansion in many different direction. The most obvious is the integration of Bitcoin, and soon Ethereum, into Wall Street. This alone is providing defense against attack.
When we look at the infrastructure, that is another area where potential support can come from.
This will be enhanced by payment rails that are being set up. Real world assets tied to public networks is another. Digital assets tied to various industries is also on tap.
Ultimately, the number of people who are being affected by this is growing exponentially. As this town could show, even if those people are not into cryptocurrency, their lives are impacted by it.
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