Cryptocurrency innovator Amadeus recently introduced a new blockchain system designed to transform the massive energy consumed by crypto mining into something useful: artificial intelligence training.
The company calls the new system a “thinking blockchain” that redirects the energy typically wasted on mining computations toward AI development.
Per Investopedia, traditional crypto mining relies on powerful computers to solve complex math puzzles, which in turn secures the network and records transactions. While this process is key for blockchain security, it consumes enormous amounts of electricity — often generated by dirty fuels like oil and gas — without exactly producing any direct value beyond maintaining the network and its security.
As CoinTrust outlines, Amadeus’ system operates on a similar principle but replaces “meaningless hash calculations” with useful AI learning. With this model, mining power is channeled into training and improving AI, purportedly creating a self-sustaining system where more miners mean more AI progress and a stronger blockchain ecosystem.
It’s a bit difficult to visualize, and it’s easier to express skepticism that the process is just moving around the attribution of high energy demands between two of the decade’s top power chuggers — crypto and AI — for purposes that would need the energy either way. The idea, though, is it should better leverage the computing resources available and could, at least, also reduce e-waste.
The Amadeus team said its platform also includes several companion technologies that make AI programs easier to build and more accessible. Its Nova AI compiler, for instance, is supposed to help AI programs to learn and evolve autonomously, storing updates permanently on the blockchain. A no-code interface allows anyone — even non-programmers — to build and monetize their own AI “agents.”
As CoinTrust explained, a user could create an “agent” to monitor financial markets, complete trades, and adjust strategies automatically all within a secure system. Amadeus hopes this approach could help both businesses seeking affordable AI solutions as well as individuals looking to create automated income streams, per the outlet.
Although still in its early stages, Amadeus’ system shows potential in helping to solve one of the biggest challenges facing both cryptocurrency and AI: their enormous energy demands.
NerdWallet reports that, collectively, bitcoin miners consume more electricity than some entire countries. While many major mining operations now use surplus or renewable energy and a University of Cambridge study says the industry now gets less than half of its power from fossil fuels, mining remains highly resource-intensive and causes heavy environmental strain.
AI data centers face similar issues, consuming massive amounts of electricity and requiring billions of gallons of freshwater to cool their hardware, leading the industry to pursue small modular nuclear reactors and giant natural gas turbines, with some companies even investing heavier in nuclear fusion hopes. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, these data centers also depend heavily on rare minerals that are frequently mined under unethical and unsustainable conditions.
By combining crypto mining with AI learning, Amadeus’ model is hoping to find a smarter use for wasted energy, and while it’s still a lot of energy either way, the innovation could be a solid step in the right direction if it pans out.
