Author of the opinion: Daniil and David Liberman, founders of Gonka

Bitcoin has taught us an important lesson about building infrastructure: when you reward efficiency, you get incredible innovation.

Fifteen years ago, Bitcoin mining ran on the same graphics cards used by gamers. The network was slow, and the computing power was low. But Bitcoin's proof-of-work (PoW) system rewards miners who can process blocks most efficiently.

This created a race to build better hardware. Today, Bitcoin runs on machines known as ASICs, which are hundreds of thousands of times more efficient than the best Nvidia graphics cards. Not a 10% improvement, but a 100,000 times improvement. This is what happens when you reward the most useful work.

In just 15 years, Bitcoin mining infrastructure has surpassed an astonishing 16 gigawatts of capacity. This represents enough power to run 10 million of the most powerful Blackwell Nvidia GPUs—not only more efficient but also vastly larger in pure scale than the combined total of OpenAI, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and xAI.

Currently, AI runs on expensive general-purpose chips because that is the existing choice. But imagine if we built AI networks like Bitcoin, where anyone could contribute computing power and be rewarded for executing useful AI tasks most efficiently.

Suddenly, you don’t need a sales team with a phone book that can leverage C-level executives' influence to sell chips—anyone can directly produce, install, and start "issuing currency."

Now, it makes more sense to build chips specifically designed for AI tasks.

Hardware manufacturers will compete to create the cheapest and most efficient AI processors. The same market forces that changed Bitcoin mining will come into play. Only this time, there will be ten times the power because there are true blockchain believers with billions of dollars who have become wealthy from the Bitcoin revolution.

Many early decentralized AI projects use proof of stake (PoS)—which simply means rewards are given to those holding the most tokens, rather than to those building the best infrastructure.

Take Bittensor as an example. The network's most powerful computing capacity is concentrated in subnet 64, which actually runs large AI models. However, its miners only receive 5% of the network's rewards. The other 95% goes to token stakers or associated miners who contribute significantly less or no work at all.

This is upside down. We need a network that rewards those building better hardware, not those with the largest frozen assets for yield extraction.

Proof of work is not just about cryptocurrency. It’s about using competition to drive innovation, rather than accepting any existing hardware. In just ten years, the blockchain community could build infrastructure that produces computing power thousands of times greater than the majority of centralized markets.

For AI, this could mean the difference between expensive centralized computing and intelligence that is as cheap and abundant as electricity. In a few years, the cost of running AI models could be nearly zero.

Today's AI is like Bitcoin in 2009. The network is just getting started, and early participants have the greatest opportunity.

Pay attention to proof-of-work AI projects. Contribute computing power, whether your own or rented from the market. Start mining. Those building this infrastructure now will benefit the most.

Author of the opinion: Daniil and David Liberman, founders of Gonka.

Related article: OpenAI launches ChatGPT "Pulse"—can it boost cryptocurrency trading?

This article is for general informational purposes only and is not intended to be, nor should it be construed as, legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Original article: “Opinion: AI Needs Proof of Work, Not Big Tech”

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