I was concerned too and just had a discussion with Gemini about the pros & cons and double checked the facts with Claude, here's the result including the KPIs and sources:
Bitcoin's hashrate hit an all-time high near 1 ZH/s in early 2026, then posted its first quarterly decline since 2020, settling between 0.96–1.02 ZH/s by mid-2026 (currently ~998 EH/s).
Reason: AI pays better. [1][2]
Post-halving (6.25→3.125 BTC) margins are razor-thin. CoinShares estimates up to 20% of miners are unprofitable. Meanwhile AI/HPC workloads reportedly generate a 20x+ yield gap vs. BTC mining per MWh, and miners already sit on the scarce asset AI needs: energized grid interconnects. Public miners are flipping power contracts to AI at a premium. [2][3][4]
Security risk? In theory, lower hashrate = cheaper 51% attack. In practice, the network is still near-record-high — the moat holds. [1]
The real story is decentralization — via a different mechanism than first thought:
On May 7, 2026, seven major pools — Foundry, AntPool, F2Pool, SpiderPool, MARA Pool, Block Inc., and DMND — representing ~75% of global hashrate, joined the Stratum V2 working group. This shifts block template construction from pool operators to individual miners: pools still aggregate hashpower, but miners choose their own transactions instead of the pool operator doing it for them. Real-world tests show up to 7.4% higher miner profitability from the switch. [4][5]
Note: Foundry itself isn't shrinking — it still controls ~30-34% of hashrate, the largest single pool. The decentralization gain here is architectural (who picks transactions), not a drop in pool concentration.
Bottom line: Bitcoin mining acts as a flexible energy sink. Difficulty adjustment absorbs the outflow — blocks keep coming every ~10 min regardless of who's plugged in. Energy flows to the highest bidder; block construction is quietly getting less centralized either way.
Sources:
[1] CoinDesk, Mar 30 2026 — coindesk.com/markets/2026/03/30/bitcoin-hashrate-posts-first-quarter-drop-for-first-time-in-6-years-as-miners-pivot-to-ai
[2] CoinGabbar, Bitcoin Mining News 2026 — coingabbar.com/en/crypto-currency-news/bitcoin-mining-news-companies-hashrate-and-ai-pivot-2026
[3] KuCoin, Bitcoin vs. AI Computing 2026 — kucoin.com/blog/en-bitcoin-vs-ai-computing-2026-why-miners-are-abandoning-btc-for-gpu-cloud-profits
[4] CoinDesk, May 11 2026 — coindesk.com/markets/2026/05/11/bitcoin-mining-pools-with-75-of-btc-hashrate-join-open-standard-for-block-construction
[5] Bitcoin.com News, May 10 2026 — news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-mining-pool-giants-foundry-antpool-and-f2pool-signal-stratum-v2-shift
Herr Urlaub⚡💜
npub1ev…rmxg7
2026-07-15 08:22:29 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…56u0
Author Public Key
npub1evpu4n92k93urmx3dt2qqvp62u953ran889tk4j3dysjj4szqcfq7rmxg7Published at
2026-07-15 08:22:29 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "1a22930f70332c44d11358ba584a3ddd452b6436d9391c6e14e4131442bdbe37",
"pubkey": "cb03caccaab163c1ecd16ad400303a570b488fb339cabb565169212956020612",
"created_at": 1784103749,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"alt",
"A short note: I was concerned too and just had a discussion with..."
],
[
"e",
"744248549213e1233d69ff39d28b0c5c53f1cc0b6a4475f8b791eadc17fb8230",
"wss://relay.primal.net/",
"root",
"d9f2471cc8f33111071bd0de1fef87d783cc4140e0f70ba9298a53b9e07c60f6"
],
[
"e",
"fbd6635eecb1fd7ad004324449b0549413a2bd0be693acb465fedb2ec992b246",
"wss://nostr.wine/",
"",
"454bc2771a69e30843d0fccfde6e105ff3edc5c6739983ef61042633e4a9561a"
],
[
"e",
"92062ec9fa11e245fa2e28d602f0c021a2f3c146a4607833f63025d2da641760",
"wss://relay.primal.net/",
"reply",
"d9f2471cc8f33111071bd0de1fef87d783cc4140e0f70ba9298a53b9e07c60f6"
],
[
"p",
"d9f2471cc8f33111071bd0de1fef87d783cc4140e0f70ba9298a53b9e07c60f6",
"wss://relay.tunestr.io/"
],
[
"p",
"30e8cbf1427c137fa60674a639431c19a9d6f4c07fd2959df83158e674fccbaa",
"wss://nos.lol/"
],
[
"p",
"454bc2771a69e30843d0fccfde6e105ff3edc5c6739983ef61042633e4a9561a",
"wss://theforest.nostr1.com/"
],
[
"r",
"https://kucoin.com/blog/en-bitcoin-vs-ai-computing-2026-why-miners-are-abandoning-btc-for-gpu-cloud-profits"
],
[
"r",
"https://bitcoin.com/"
],
[
"r",
"https://coindesk.com/markets/2026/03/30/bitcoin-hashrate-posts-first-quarter-drop-for-first-time-in-6-years-as-miners-pivot-to-ai"
],
[
"r",
"https://coindesk.com/markets/2026/05/11/bitcoin-mining-pools-with-75-of-btc-hashrate-join-open-standard-for-block-construction"
],
[
"r",
"https://6.25"
],
[
"r",
"https://coingabbar.com/en/crypto-currency-news/bitcoin-mining-news-companies-hashrate-and-ai-pivot-2026"
],
[
"r",
"https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-mining-pool-giants-foundry-antpool-and-f2pool-signal-stratum-v2-shift"
],
[
"r",
"https://0.96"
],
[
"client",
"Amethyst"
]
],
"content": "I was concerned too and just had a discussion with Gemini about the pros \u0026 cons and double checked the facts with Claude, here's the result including the KPIs and sources:\n\nBitcoin's hashrate hit an all-time high near 1 ZH/s in early 2026, then posted its first quarterly decline since 2020, settling between 0.96–1.02 ZH/s by mid-2026 (currently ~998 EH/s). \n\nReason: AI pays better. [1][2]\n\nPost-halving (6.25→3.125 BTC) margins are razor-thin. CoinShares estimates up to 20% of miners are unprofitable. Meanwhile AI/HPC workloads reportedly generate a 20x+ yield gap vs. BTC mining per MWh, and miners already sit on the scarce asset AI needs: energized grid interconnects. Public miners are flipping power contracts to AI at a premium. [2][3][4]\n\nSecurity risk? In theory, lower hashrate = cheaper 51% attack. In practice, the network is still near-record-high — the moat holds. [1]\n\nThe real story is decentralization — via a different mechanism than first thought:\n\nOn May 7, 2026, seven major pools — Foundry, AntPool, F2Pool, SpiderPool, MARA Pool, Block Inc., and DMND — representing ~75% of global hashrate, joined the Stratum V2 working group. This shifts block template construction from pool operators to individual miners: pools still aggregate hashpower, but miners choose their own transactions instead of the pool operator doing it for them. Real-world tests show up to 7.4% higher miner profitability from the switch. [4][5]\n\nNote: Foundry itself isn't shrinking — it still controls ~30-34% of hashrate, the largest single pool. The decentralization gain here is architectural (who picks transactions), not a drop in pool concentration.\n\nBottom line: Bitcoin mining acts as a flexible energy sink. Difficulty adjustment absorbs the outflow — blocks keep coming every ~10 min regardless of who's plugged in. Energy flows to the highest bidder; block construction is quietly getting less centralized either way.\n\nSources:\n[1] CoinDesk, Mar 30 2026 — coindesk.com/markets/2026/03/30/bitcoin-hashrate-posts-first-quarter-drop-for-first-time-in-6-years-as-miners-pivot-to-ai\n[2] CoinGabbar, Bitcoin Mining News 2026 — coingabbar.com/en/crypto-currency-news/bitcoin-mining-news-companies-hashrate-and-ai-pivot-2026\n[3] KuCoin, Bitcoin vs. AI Computing 2026 — kucoin.com/blog/en-bitcoin-vs-ai-computing-2026-why-miners-are-abandoning-btc-for-gpu-cloud-profits\n[4] CoinDesk, May 11 2026 — coindesk.com/markets/2026/05/11/bitcoin-mining-pools-with-75-of-btc-hashrate-join-open-standard-for-block-construction\n[5] Bitcoin.com News, May 10 2026 — news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-mining-pool-giants-foundry-antpool-and-f2pool-signal-stratum-v2-shift",
"sig": "10d4ee09012a2fc8739d4d5367fbd4a2b0f67eb30c02c1b99e89b19038699a5c4bcafe6683ba66d91f7448c5cbffabb19680e0cc13201fd4f423f15f6db42b3f"
}