> I feel like cryptocurrency and perhaps nuclear weapons are a built in 'kill switch' by nature to make sure only useful species ever get off the planet.
There are a lot of potential Great Filters [1], but crypto currencies doesn't seem like one of them. They will might slow mankind down and waste a bunch of energy&resources, but beyond that doesn't particularly hurt our survival chances. Kind of like a lot of entertainment we produce has marginal benefits. But prof of work based crypto currencies have real chance to end up irrelevant once their novelty wears off (and the interesting parts of it might even be adopted elsewhere).
There are a lot of potential Great Filters [1], but crypto currencies doesn't seem like one of them. They will might slow mankind down and waste a bunch of energy&resources, but beyond that doesn't particularly hurt our survival chances. Kind of like a lot of entertainment we produce has marginal benefits. But prof of work based crypto currencies have real chance to end up irrelevant once their novelty wears off (and the interesting parts of it might even be adopted elsewhere).
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter