> The environmental critique rings hollow. Our economy revolves around this unnecessary consumerism
It is only proof of work which needs to be more wasteful the more efficient things become.
If it turns out t-shirts are polluting massively, and someone finds out that by replacing one chemical with another they pollute much less, then people will do that.
If a more efficient machine comes out for making a t-shirt, t-shirts will become cheaper to make.
Proof of work chains can't take advantage of any improvements. They waste X amount of money in electricity intentionally. If computers get faster, they need more computers. If electricity gets cheaper, they need to burn more electricity to have similar security (make the cost of a 51% attack the same again).
Any time computers get significantly better, old hardware has to be thrown out in favor of the new fancier hardware, or else other miners outcompete you.
Can but doesn’t, and of course there’s a ton of generating capacity that would need to be replaced with green power first. Let’s operate in the reality domain.
Wasting electricity may share a good feature with wasting water or wasting internet bandwidth. It's troublesome in the short term but it leads to increased capacity being made to meet demand which benefits everyone in the longer term.
It is only proof of work which needs to be more wasteful the more efficient things become.
If it turns out t-shirts are polluting massively, and someone finds out that by replacing one chemical with another they pollute much less, then people will do that.
If a more efficient machine comes out for making a t-shirt, t-shirts will become cheaper to make.
Proof of work chains can't take advantage of any improvements. They waste X amount of money in electricity intentionally. If computers get faster, they need more computers. If electricity gets cheaper, they need to burn more electricity to have similar security (make the cost of a 51% attack the same again).
Any time computers get significantly better, old hardware has to be thrown out in favor of the new fancier hardware, or else other miners outcompete you.