I've tried to explain this before, but it's hard to explain. This theory I call, the Three Eras of Bitcoin Mining.
Bitcoin mining goes wherever energy is cheapest. First they gathered in China, then later in Texas and North America. Terrestrial Mining was the First Era of Bitcoin Mining.
It will make sense to offworld all heavy industry; anything made of aluminum or silicon can be made in situ on the moon. Elements less chemically abundant within Lunar regolith will be provided to the moon via asteroid mining. And commodities trade and finished goods will likely be transported via electrically powered, equatorial mass driver, and either aerobraking or elevators of some kind for downmass. For Bitcoin miners, heat rejection deep into the Lunar core will act as a fantastic heat sink for a very long time. Lunar Mining will be the Second Era of Bitcoin Mining.
The end state of Proof of Work is a Dyson sphere around Sol. It's undeniable that it is more efficient to drink from the source, so the hash gotten from our sun will undoubtedly outstrip that which can be done on the moon. Our sun is inconceivably huge. This might be a controversial statement due to the limits of relativity... But either the No Communication Theorem winds up just being a quantum protocol engineering problem, or the residents of the Solar system all just send their big transactions towards their sun, relying first and foremost on a multilayered monetary system, and only for those that are truly scarce, which will be a simple way to resolve property ownership disputes, all other things being found in abundance in a Kardashev Type I post-scarcity society. Solar Mining will be the Third and Final Era of Bitcoin Mining.
Bitcoin mining helps to assist in financing all of these megaprojects by aligning energy with money: 1) abundant, clean energy on Earth, 2) post scarcity economies in orbit, and 3) colonization of the Solar system.
Once contact with the aliens who realized Humans were ready for their gift, the nudge, the Big Cosmic Hint At How To Do Things, we can join the civilized galactic civilization with the pride of having done the Great Work of becoming an Type I Civilization, thank them, and then figure out how StellEx works (Stellar Exchange markets) between our economies. It's fun to imagine what might be traded and how trade might occur between stars. But that's about as far as I care to speculate for now, at least, before I've published one of the books I'm working on, The Exophiles.
