>> This would be a reasonable stance if Bitcoin were just another activity, but it’s unique in its energy profile. What other technology is designed so that energy efficiency improvements are absorbed and nullified (through the difficulty adjustment mechanism)?
> Bitcoin is far from unique in this. When gas prices fall people have been shown to drive more. And buy less efficient cars and drive them less efficiently (faster, more aggressively).
I don't think that's true, or it's only true if you look at it from a consumption perspective that ignores important parts of the picture.
When gas prices fall, more energy is used, but travel miles increase. More work gets done per dollar.
When bitcoin mining gets more efficient or energy cheaper, the amount of bicoin "work" done stays constant, because the difficulty changes to compensate. It's like if roads got longer the cheaper gas gets.