and ~99% of all computational work that goes into proof of work goes into Bitcoin. The Bitcoin protocol has established a de-facto monopoly over the implementation of Proof of Work, akin to TCP/IP's monopoly over the implementation of the internet circa 2005. once nations wake up to the function & value of proof-of-work, it's hard to understate how important it will be for nations to have a Strategic Bitcoin Stockpile.

In hindsight, the counterbalance to the threat of AI will be obviously Bitcoin. Here's the billion dollar answer that nobody seems to understand yet: AI agent hackers = the inevitable end state of infinitely collapsing marginal cost of computation. Systems that are capable of outsmarting & exploiting any human-made cyber defense system that attemps to use conditional, permissioned-based logic alone. Bitcoin = the world's chosen proof-of-work protocol. Want to defeat an AI agent hacker? you can't rely on conditional logic alone. you have to introduce something into the equation that AI can't defeat: brute-force physical limitations. AI's Achilles heal is computational cost, and it just so happens that the world has adopted a proof-of-computational-work protocol where we treat the electro-mechanical cost of computing as a tradeable digital asset that can be used as a form of restrictive collateral: it's called Bitcoin. Understand this, and you understand the fundamentals about how Bitcoin will become the thing that ALL computing systems rely on to defend them against the threat of AI. "digital gold" barely even scratches the surface of the importance of Bitcoin in 2030 and beyond.

a proof of work is a self-referential digital artifact. it is information which represents the computing cost to produced itself. this is a subtle but revolutionary concept in computer science because: all other information IGNORES the computing costs required to produce it. we know these costs exists, but we ignore them. that is, we know that it takes electricity and silicon to produce information, like the words in this tweet that are appearing on your screen. however, we don't think much about it. we treat it as an incidental cost, we don't track its origin & chain of custody, and we strive to minimize it. proof of work is the opposite. the information being portrayed in a proof of work IS the computing cost required to produce it. we rigorously track its origin and chain of custody, and we increase that cost parabolically. In other words, THE COMPUTING COST REQUIRED TO PRODUCE A PROOF OF WORK IS THE PRIMARY FUNCTION AND VALUE OF PROOF OF WORK.