Hacker News Reader

> but can we even have a blockchain-based tech that doesn't burn enormous amounts of electricity just to operate?

Look into Proof of Stake (PoS) - people are looking into more efficient blockchains (although there's some controversy over whether it will work)

I've heard of the term, but from what I understand, no actual working implementation of that concept currently exists, right?

Decred is currently mined using a mix of PoW and PoS.

Current supply[1]:

PoW-mined: 43.5% PoS-mined: 21.8% Development Subsidy: 7.3% Airdrop: 13.7% Dev Premine: 13.7%

Blackcoin is also PoS mined, and NXT reaches consensus using PoS but if IIUC is not mined per se.