Two heavyweights in the tech world have, coincidentally, both mentioned the same thing recently.

Elon Musk said something quite striking: “In the future, power generation capacity will be currency.” Jensen Huang immediately followed up: “Bitcoin? That’s energy you can put in your pocket.”

It sounds like science fiction, but if you think about it, it’s not nonsense at all.

How power-hungry is AI these days? Data centers are lining up for grid capacity, and chip manufacturers are building factories around the world just to secure electricity. Suddenly, electricity has become a resource even harder than money. Fiat currency can be printed, gold can be mined, but you can’t create a kilowatt-hour out of thin air—the laws of physics are there and no one can bypass them.

So what does Bitcoin have to do with all this?

Mining, at its core, is the process of converting electrical energy into digital assets. Hydroelectric plants in Norway, solar panels in the Middle East, geothermal stations next to volcanoes—all this “wasted electricity” that couldn’t be transported or sold before can now be turned directly into Bitcoin by mining rigs and instantly circulated to any corner of the globe. This isn’t just a conceptual game; it’s real-world energy transfer.

What’s even more crucial is that the settlement logic has changed.

Transnational energy transactions used to require banks, customs, agreements—so many intermediaries. Now? Electricity is converted into Bitcoin and settled peer-to-peer, with no need for third-party endorsement, no worries about exchange rate fluctuations or payment risk. For the first time, energy has a globally accepted “settlement unit.”

Calling Bitcoin “digital gold” sounds intimidating, but at the end of the day it’s still just a piggy bank. Energy currency is different—it corresponds directly to the scarcest resource in the physical world. Every coin is backed by real power consumption, and this anchor point can’t be faked.

It’s no coincidence that two people at the pinnacle of the tech world are betting on this direction. As currency moves closer to being backed by energy, Bitcoin may be the answer closest to that endgame.

What do you think about this shift in narrative?