Why have Elon Musk and Jensen Huang both started talking about the concept of "energy currency"? On the surface, it seems like they're just labeling Bitcoin, but in reality, they may be hitting on a key pain point in the US power sector.

The US doesn't actually lack resources—coal reserves are abundant, and there's plenty of natural gas and oil. The real bottleneck is the outdated power delivery system.

Want to build a new high-voltage power line? Get ready for a decade-long argument. By the time the project is actually implemented, there might have been two changes in the White House. The approval process moves at a snail's pace, with efficiency so low it's almost unbelievable.

So the core issue isn't a lack of resources to mine, but that this approval mechanism has dragged grid upgrades into a never-ending project. The result is that the power network can't keep up with modern demands, and the presence of power-hungry Bitcoin in the US seems especially ironic—you call it "energy currency," but you can't even supply enough electricity.