Bitcoin wastes a lot of energy. I agree. It is basically a mechanism to turn energy into something analogous to money.

However, people do not generally live where there is a lot of potential to generate green energy. Wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear all generally work best far away from heavily populated areas (this is not always the case). Additionally, wind + solar are highly variable.

Per unit of energy renewable energy will always be more cost effective than fossil fuels in the long run, but there is a high fixed cost at present.

The more sources that can consume energy in remote areas the more incentives there are to build renewable energy sources.

Thus cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are a net positive for building green energy sources in the long term.

  • Bobo The Great@startrek.website
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    4 days ago

    Energy is nof only used to “create” value, but also to hold it. Even when you reach the limit of 21 something milion bitcoins, every transaction will require a huge amount of energy, and the amount it requires will go up.