Crypto & AI Data Centers Face Senate’s Wrath! 😡

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From the grim bowels of the American Senate, a new shadow rises.
A draft legislation, conceived in the dim minds of those who claim to shepherd us, threatens the very arteries of progress: data centers that dare to serve blockchain networks and those audacious artificial intelligence models.
A Bloomberg missive, dated April 11th, speaks of this looming oppression.
One can almost hear the clanking of chains. ⛓️

Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and John Fetterman, self-proclaimed saviors of the environment and protectors of the common man’s pocketbook, spearhead this ill-conceived endeavor.
They feign concern over rising energy demands, claiming to shield households from the specter of higher bills.
But behind this veil of altruism, one smells the stench of control, the insatiable hunger for power.

The so-called “Clean Cloud Act”—a title so ironic it borders on the blasphemous—mandates that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that bastion of bureaucratic excess, shall impose emissions standards on data centers and crypto mining facilities exceeding 100 KW of installed IT power.
A chilling decree, reminiscent of the darkest epochs of enforced conformity.

These standards, dictated by regional grid emissions intensities, demand an 11% annual reduction.
And should these centers falter, should they dare to exceed the imposed limits, penalties await: a starting price of $20 per ton of CO2e, escalating annually with inflation, plus an additional $10 for good measure.
A slow, agonizing squeeze, designed to suffocate innovation. 💰

A minority blog post, emanating from the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, laments that “surging power demand from cryptominers and data centers is outpacing the growth of carbon-free electricity.”
They predict that data centers will consume a staggering 12% of the US total power demand by 2028.
As if electricity itself is a finite resource, to be rationed and controlled by the benevolent state.

Morgan Stanley, that oracle of financial prognostication, foresees a cataclysmic 2.5 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions globally by the end of the decade, courtesy of the data center’s ravenous appetite.
The numbers swirl, the alarms blare, and the politicians rejoice, for they have found a new scapegoat.

Matthew Sigel, a VanEck researcher, rightly identifies this legislation as a targeted assault on Bitcoin (BTC) miners, a “Losing ‘Blame the Server Racks’ Strategy,” as he so eloquently put it on X.
Indeed, why solve the energy crisis when one can simply punish those who dare to use it? 🤷‍♂️

And let us not forget the specter of President Trump, who, in his infinite wisdom, repealed a 2023 executive order by former President Biden on AI safety standards.
Trump, with his grand vision of making the US the “world capital” of AI and cryptocurrency, now finds his ambition threatened by the very bureaucracy he seeks to command.
The irony, it burns. 🔥

Bitcoin and AI Convergence

Bitcoin and AI converge

This draft law, still gestating within the Senate’s labyrinthine halls, arrives as Bitcoin miners—Galaxy, CoreScientific, Terawulf—dare to diversify, to supply high-performance computing (HPC) power for AI models.
A desperate gamble, perhaps, but one born of necessity.

The year 2025 has been unkind to Bitcoin miners, as declining cryptocurrency prices gnaw at business models already wounded by the Bitcoin network’s latest halving.
A perfect storm of misfortune, brewed by the whims of the market and the machinations of the state.

Coin Metrics observes that miners are “diversifying into AI data-center hosting as a way to expand revenue and repurpose existing infrastructure for high-performance computing.”
A noble endeavor, to salvage what remains from the wreckage.

Miners' Incomes Stabilizing

According to Coin Metrics, miners’ incomes showed signs of stabilization in the first quarter of 2025.
A glimmer of hope, perhaps, but one that may soon be extinguished.

Several cryptocurrency executives warn that ongoing trade wars could disrupt miners’ business models.
For in the grand chessboard of global politics, even the smallest pawn can be sacrificed for the sake of strategy.

Nicholas Roberts-Huntley, CEO of Concrete & Glow Finance, warns that “aggressive tariffs and retaliatory trade policies could create obstacles for node operators, validators, and other core participants in blockchain networks.”
A chilling reminder that even the most decentralized systems are vulnerable to the whims of centralized power.

“In moments of global uncertainty,” Roberts-Huntley concludes, “the infrastructure supporting crypto, not just the assets themselves, can become collateral damage.”
A somber truth, echoing the fate of countless victims throughout history.

A darkness descends. 🌑

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2025-04-12 00:51