Cathedra’s Tom Masiero joins us to breakdown how the bitcoin mining AI-shift echoes China’s 2021 bitcoin mining ban.
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Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! Today, Tom Masiero, Head of Strategy at Cathedra joins us to talk about the structural shifts pushing bitcoin miners toward AI and HPC services. We explore why this migration mirrors the 2021 China mining ban, the hidden opportunities for smaller operators, and why Bitcoiners understand the "power game" better than traditional data centers. Tom breaks down the reality of infrastructure costs, the current state of hash price, and how the "cockroach" mentality of miners is paving the way for the future of global compute.
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Notes:
* Hash price hit all-time low of $29/PH/day.
* China ban cut 80% of global hash rate.
* 5 of last 6 difficulty adjustments negative.
* AI infrastructure costs $10-$15M per megawatt.
* Bitcoin price dropped to $65,000 level.
* Sub-50 MW sites are the new frontier.
Timestamps:
00:00 Start
03:22 AI boom & China mining ban
08:30 What edge do miners have over hyperscalers?
13:23 Energy production limits
21:23 Small scale HPC
24:23 Batteries
35:46 Secondary effects
36:51 Pleb miners
39:55 IS US mining doomed?
45:57 Powershell vs Neocloud
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