Your derogatory tone is uncalled for, nothing in my comment was pro-crypto.
Stashing of small to moderate currency against a low-quality government or mafia (via the conversion of electricity) seems like one good use case of currencies. If this isn't the case, it would be genuinely interesting to know why.
> ...you should expect to spend something like 95¢ in electricity to make $1 of bitcoin
Got a quote for this 95% figure? Yes, I understand efficient markets. Presumably, a lot of the value of crypto is amortized from the hardware.
> When you look at that kind of power draw,
Your criticism relies on two unstated assumptions.
1. Large scale. If I can stash a small rig somewhere, then I can produce currency. This process doesn't require scale or major investment, so you could mine at a small enough scale to be below notice (see also: black markets). This seems like a viable way to save funds at a personal/family level.
2. Has electricity prices risen correspondingly with inflation? I would expect in a dev country electricity is subsidized or small relative to other living costs. The same energy it takes to run a home I could generate a few bucks here. A few bucks in our country is incredibly valuable right now in V.