AI Data Center "Gold Rush" Sparks Controversy: Will It Impact Bitcoin Network Security?

BlockBeats News, March 16 — As the power demand from artificial intelligence data centers surges, the market is fiercely debating whether this will weaken bitcoin mining and even affect the security of the bitcoin network.

Crypto trader Ran Neuner stated on social media that AI has become the biggest competitor to bitcoin mining, as both are highly dependent on electricity resources. He pointed out that bitcoin mining generates revenue of about $57 to $129 per megawatt of electricity, while AI data centers can earn $200 to $500 per megawatt, up to 8 times higher than mining. As a result, more and more mining companies are shifting to AI businesses. Neuner listed several mining companies that have started to invest in AI:

Core Scientific recently secured a credit line of up to $1.1 billions for AI hosting services;
MARA Holdings submitted documents to the US SEC, hinting at the possible sale of some bitcoin to advance its AI transformation;
Hut 8 signed a $7 billions AI infrastructure agreement with Google in December last year;
Cipher Mining has also reduced its computing power to invest in AI computing.

In addition, Jihan Wu (co-founder of Bitmain) is also believed to have stopped mining and shifted to the AI sector. Neuner believes that if miners continue to exit, the decline in bitcoin hash rate will increase the potential risk of a "51% attack" on the network. Currently, the total bitcoin network hash rate has dropped by about 14.5% from its peak in October last year.

However, some industry insiders hold different views. Early bitcoin developer and cryptographer Adam Back stated that even if some miners switch to AI, bitcoin's difficulty adjustment mechanism will automatically lower mining difficulty, increasing the profitability of remaining miners and attracting hash power back to the network.