Global BTC energy consumption is now double[1] what it was in July, meaning the claim that it's somehow getting better spurious. The article also acknowledges that the energy consumption criticism is a valid issue (even despite the stats being out of date).
I can respect this view on cryptocurrency. I don't agree with it (I <3 representative democracy), but I can absolutely respect it. Giving up centralization and trust is expensive from an efficiency standpoint. If you look at Bitcoin for every day transactions it lags fiat in almost every functional dimension: latency, user experience, power usage, scalability, etc.
But! Bitcoin does have one completely novel trick! It can operate without State backing. No authorities. No trust between parties (whether miner<->miner, node<->miner, or node<->node). Centralization seems somewhat questionable these days, but I think "decentralized enough" is a fair assessment.
None of this is something I look for in a currency, but I can appreciate how cryptocurrencies fill that niche for those who do.
I disagree on the former. Destroying the environment just to get a shitty, inefficient, non-competitive payment system because you don't like the U.S. Federal Reserve isn't a good trade.
Global BTC energy consumption is now double[1] what it was in July, meaning the claim that it's somehow getting better spurious. The article also acknowledges that the energy consumption criticism is a valid issue (even despite the stats being out of date).
[1] https://ccaf.io/cbeci/index