[NEWS] Bitwise points out that cryptocurrencies and AI will increase global GDP by $20 trillion by 2030

On the 11th, digital asset management company Bitwise released a report predicting that cryptocurrencies and AI are likely to increase global GDP by $20 trillion by 2030.

Bitwise Senior Cryptocurrency Research Analyst Juan Leon pointed out that "the cryptocurrency and AI industries will be bigger than people imagine."

Leon noted that one opportunity for cryptocurrencies and AI to work together is a new partnership between Bitcoin (BTC) miners and AI.

Currently, the AI ​​boom has attracted attention from semiconductor manufacturer NVIDIA, whose market capitalization has reached $3 trillion. It is the third largest company in the world after Microsoft and Apple.

Leon points out that the race for "AI hegemony" is causing unprecedented shortages of data centers, AI chips, and power supplies. He added that the world's four biggest cloud service providers -- Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft -- are expected to invest about $200 billion in new data centers next year alone.

However, according to commercial real estate firm CBRE Group, more than 80% of data centers under construction have already been pre-leased, which is insufficient to meet the new demand for AI.

That's where infrastructure like storage and cooling systems built for bitcoin mining can come in handy, Leon explained. The integrated circuits used in mining themselves aren't suitable for AI, but they are suited to storing large amounts of data, making them useful for supporting large data centers, he said.

A good example is AI cloud provider CoreWeave's proposal last week to acquire bitcoin miner Core Scientific for $1.6 billion. The offer is said to be 55% higher than market price. This follows a 12-year, $3.5 billion partnership agreement between the two companies.

"Our expanded relationship with CoreWeave paves the way for us to diversify our business model and balance our portfolio of bitcoin mining and alternative computing hosting, maximizing cash flow and minimizing risk while maintaining significant exposure to bitcoin's upside potential," Core Scientific CEO Adam Sullivan said.

Bitcoin mining companies, including Core Scientific, have been exploring ways to boost revenue since the April halving, when miners' block rewards were halved. Other mining companies, such as Hut8 and Iris Energy, have also been working on AI in recent months.

Crypto and AI to combat deepfakes, etc.

Beyond miner diversification, Leon argues that blockchain-based verification work is another opportunity for the intersection of crypto and AI.

While AI tools are on the rise, risks associated with generative AI content and deepfakes are becoming major concerns. Against this backdrop, Leon noted that new projects are finding ways to leverage the accessibility, transparency, and immutability of public blockchains to combat the misuse of AI.

As an example, Leon cites a startup called Attestiv. The company creates a digital "fingerprint" of a video based on metadata such as when and where it was shot, and stores it on the blockchain. If the video is suspected of being manipulated, the platform can match it with the fingerprint and inform the viewer that the video has been tampered with.

Another potential use case, according to Leon, is related to virtual assistants.

"Combining AI assistants with smart contracts and crypto assets such as Bitcoin and stablecoins could open up new avenues to increase productivity," he wrote.

Reference: Report
Image: Shutterstock

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