A Review of Mining History, BTC Layer 2 Ecosystem Layout, and AI Trend Analysis

Recently, during a certain Web3 event, an offline event themed around Bitcoin was held in Hong Kong. The event gathered early Bitcoin miners and new forces from BTC layer 2 projects to jointly review the history of Bitcoin Mining and look forward to the future development of the BTC ecosystem.

The co-founder and CEO of a well-known cryptocurrency company shared his experiences as an early Bitcoin miner at the event, discussing the challenges faced by miners going overseas, and elaborating on his views on the BTC second-layer network and artificial intelligence, as well as the company's strategies in these areas.

The CEO first introduced himself as a veteran miner, NFT collector, and on-chain inscription participant. He reviewed the development of the cryptocurrency industry over the past decade, from early GPU Mining to the emergence of ASICs, to the establishment of the first Chinese mining pool and the first Bitcoin halving. He also mentioned the subsequent Ethereum ICO boom, DeFi Summer, and the explosion of NFTs, as well as the recent prosperity of the Bitcoin ecosystem and the rise of various Layer 2 networks.

He believes that the launch of the Bitcoin ETF in January 2024 marks the formal debut of Bitcoin as a mature financial asset. He stated that the core issues of the current blockchain industry have become basically clear, and there is hope for large-scale adoption in the next one or two cycles, allowing end users to seamlessly utilize the convenience and security brought by blockchain technology.

Regarding the development of institutional and professional mining, the CEO shared experiences from the bear market period between the end of 2014 and 2015. At that time, the price of Bitcoin fell sharply, forcing miners to optimize electricity costs and relocate from high-quality mining sites in city centers to areas with lower electricity costs. He recalled his first large-scale mining site in downtown Nanjing and the subsequent need to move to areas rich in hydroelectric resources.

When discussing the issues faced by miners going overseas, the CEO pointed out that while overseas mining was initially full of hope, it has actually encountered numerous challenges. In the United States, miners face issues such as legal matters, taxation, operational efficiency, and fluctuations in electricity costs. In South America and Africa, the main concerns are political stability and security. He also mentioned that the entry of new players overseas, especially some sovereign funds, has led to generally lower industry profit margins.

Regarding the BTC Layer 2 network project, the CEO analyzed the recent prosperous development of the Bitcoin ecosystem and the resulting mainnet congestion issues. He introduced the company's secure solutions based on multi-party computation to address the challenges of bridging asset security and decentralization. He anticipates that these issues will gradually improve and be resolved with the development of technology.

Finally, the CEO shared his views on the application of artificial intelligence in the blockchain field. He believes that AI can not only improve individual work efficiency but may also deeply integrate with blockchain technology. He envisioned scenarios where AI agents directly conduct transactions on the chain and use smart contracts, expecting to see some mature prototypes in the next three to five years. He stated that the company is working to develop a standard API to support the interaction capabilities of AI agents with blockchain and expects to launch related product prototypes in the second half of this year.