But they’re still wasting GOBS of electricity in the process.
The fix to the power problem would be to find a way to mine coins that uses less electricity, not ‘cleaner’ electricity.
Of course as soon as you do that the usage won’t change. If you can mine x BTC/kWH then why would accept mining the same amount of bitcoin when for the same power you were already using you could mine more BTC?
There is no "fix" here, as the strength of Bitcoin rests on the fundamental laws of nature whereby energy is required to process information. If you can invent an energy-less form of computing, more power to you, but I think the laws of thermodynamics preclude it from being possible.
There is fundamentally no problem with a lot of energy, just look at the Sun, which "wastes" many orders of magnitude more energy than anything else humans have ever done. The problem is with our present ways of burning fossil fuels for energy, but then again, this has nothing to do with Bitcoin.
PS: Don't actually look at the Sun.
> The country has more than 2,000 small stations, many of them sitting idle because of low wholesale power prices and an absence of state support.
That's not to mention the energy disposal problem that you have to deal with when the majority of your energy is renewable - POW is a good way to get rid of unused energy. Given that Bitcoin isn't going away, much like anything else where greed is concerned, this is a fantastic development.
> find a way to mine coins that uses less electricity
Attack SHA-256. That's the only option we have now. People sure-as-hell aren't going to move away from a tech which they believe is printing free money (I have some otherwise very smart friends who are mining coins with GPUs).
How are they free? You need equipment and electricity.
> I have some otherwise very smart friends who are mining coins with GPUs
Do you want to say that mining is stupid? If you mine the right coins and hold them long enough for price to increase you can make a lot of money.
Exactly my point.
> Do you want to say that mining is stupid?
You could just buy them, which lowers your overall expenditure. Mining only amortizes a greater cost over time.